Engaged!

Before it breaks on Facebook (please hold off on public posts until we change our statuses on Monday to give both of us a change to tell people personally) and since I am wide awake (although the alarm is set for 2 hours from now) I wanted to let you know that I AM ENGAGED!

Story of how Ari and I met:

My first shabbat at my student pulpit in Israel (Tiferet Shalom in Ramat Aviv) I was running the show and leading services and it also happened to be a MAROM event with services at the shul and a dinner after. (Marom is Israel's version of Koach= college USY and since it is Israel where students go to the army and then university, the students are slightly older than college students in the USA) I had been invited to the dinner by a fellow Ramah Poconos Alum. While leading services, I saw this handsome and really cute boy-man in the back of the room (second row) and was intrigued. He was coming to the dinner and we ended up spending 4 hours talking that night. We walked back to the shul and he told me "I might facebook friend you." I responded "I might accept." He did, and I did. The rest is history...until Friday night.

My whole family is now here in Israel. On Friday afternoon, we (Hannah, Ari and I) drove to the airport to pick up my mother who has come for a 6 week visit, dropped her off at my father's apartment and rushed back to mine where we finished the last minute preparations for shabbat. Ari's parents arrived and we walked to shul where they met my parents. Then it was back to my apartment where the 5 Kremers and 3 of the Fellmans enjoyed getting to know each other and celebrating my birthday. After I served the dessert, Ari gave me my present- 2 days early! (since we were still the same age-27-my birthday is today!) A wrapped Uzi Chitman CD set and a RING! After shabbat, he asked me to marry him. Since entering into business contracts is not permitted on the Sabbath, he waited until after Shabbat to actually ask the question, and I said YES!

Who is this Ari?

If you have not been following on facebook or my blog (www.humustales.blogspot.com although seeing as you are reading this, you have been), Ari has been my main extra-curricular time filler over the past 3 months. He is currently serving in the Israeli military as an engineer and has his BSC in electrical engineering and physics from the Technion. He also started a masters degree in Physics at Hebrew University this semester. He was born in Guatemala and his family made aliyah 2 days before his first birthday. He is the middle of 5 children. He grew up in the conservative (Masorti) movement here in Israel and has been a bnei mitzvah tutor and can read the whole Torah portion with 1.5 weeks notice. He is adorable and is really my best friend.

What now?

Ari will be with me, my family and some friends for Pesach. I leave Israel in the middle of June to go work at Camp Ramah in the Poconos and Ari comes to the states for a visit in the middle of August.

From the looks of things and the initial discussions, we will have a civil wedding and a large aufruf celebration in Philadelphia either the last weekend of August or the first weekend of September and then the chuppah in Israel during Chol Hamoed Sukkot! I will be returning for a second year in Israel (to finish an MA at Machon Schechter) and then we will go to the states so that I can be ordained. Ultimate plan is for me to make aliyah and go back to Israel together within 10 years.

In happiness and excitement,
Aviva (and Ari Fellman)