A sense of community

I briefly mentioned in my last post that it has been three years since I've arrived in Australia. People ask me all the time if I get homesick. I always smile and say the same thing " How can I be homesick when I talk to my parents more now than I did living in the same city as them? Thanks Skype."
It's true, I don't get homesick. That isn't to say my friends and family back in Canada aren't wonderful, because they are. I truly do speak to my parents more now. Thanks to Skype and Facebook I keep up with friends and family alike no matter where I am or they are. In some cases I honestly do talk to some people more now than before I left Canada but that's not the only reason I don't suffer bouts of homesickness.

It, of course helps that I've got my own young family now, in laws who have taken me in so lovingly and a small but devoted and amazing set of new friends here. The thing I didn't count on was our local Jewish community. I didn't even I realised how much support we had from our own congregation until this past week. Of course they were wonderful when my daughter had her belated naming ceremony, belated so my parents and two youngest brothers could be there. When my husband decided to officially become a Jew by choice, they were wonderfully supportive then too. This past week though I've really realised what a sense of family we get from our Temple.

I'll explain a little of what's been going on to make me realise this. As I've said in earlier posts we are expecting a little boy at the end of this month. Knowing the sex of the baby my husband and I thought it'd be a good idea to get on top of the planning of a Brit Milah, and it's good thing we did. The first thing to do was to contact a doctor. The local mohel won't do it for us in a religious setting because my Jewish blood is through my father and not my mother. Frustrating as that is, we moved on. The next doctor we spoke to insisted on forwarding us on to the mohel. This lead to a few days of emails trying to explain why the mohel wouldn't preform a Bris for us. Even after we explained our situation, this doctor for reasons he didn't pass on to my husband said he couldn't help us. Thankfully a board member at our Temple has been amazingly helpful and this morning hubby checked his email and found several emails from other board members and even a Rabbi from another State (our Temple is in midst of finding a new Rabbi.) All offering suggestions and help. This being our first son, we had no idea of what our options are. While the situation itself has been frustrating it has been incredibly reassuring to have so much support from the people at Temple.

I realise now this sense of community is another reason I don't suffer from homesickness. I feel as though here, in a city I had never even heard of four years ago I have found a whole community worth of support and love. That makes me feel even better about raising my children here. While no one can replace my own parents and siblings, it nice to have "family" around to lean on. They will be there as our children grow up through the Temples' religious school, who will one day witness my daughters Bat Mitzvah, my son's Bar Mitzvah, hopefully a couple of weddings down the road. For Doug and I, it's always been our goal to raise our children with a proud sense of their Jewish identity and thanks to our support system here I know that will be reinforced through the community as well as through family.

I feel like this is something every family should have. It doesn't need to be through a synagogue but a support system when raising a family makes all the difference in the world. I've always felt as though the saying "it takes a village to raise a child" had some credence. Now I truly believe it. That "village" can be a strong circle of friends or family, church, synagogue, whatever is your community. I know that I am very grateful and happy to have our community.