Um, old new news...

If you're reading this, then chances are you already know that I'm engaged. But if you're not on facebook, you might not have any idea about the circumstances.

So I'm pasting below a note I wrote on facebook. I'll update another blog entry after this one, with other stuff.

from facebook:

So this will be quick-ish (as much as that's possible with my long-winded fingers, anyway).

Shaul and I met through frumster, an internet dating site for religious ("orthodox") Jews. He's Swedish, but he spent quite a bit of the last three years in the States. When we started writing, he was visiting his parents in Sweden. We communicated fairly regularly for about a month, before he came to Israel to visit in February.

We knew that he'd be leaving for anywhere between six weeks to three months, at the beginning of June. Way back in February, that did not seem like a big deal. By May, it seemed like a HUGE deal.

Because we knew from the beginning that our time together was limited, and due to the fact that I've felt somewhat like a teenage girl during this process, I pretty much dropped out of the lives of most of my friends.

I seem to have peculiar "luck" when it comes to my strong ability to "jinx" anything, any time, so other than the immediately close people here in the neighborhood and our families, very few people knew we were even in a relationship. Clearly, I never posted about it on facebook -- hence the reason so many of you were so shocked. ;-)

Shaul left Israel on 3 June, and when he left we didn't know when he'd be back. We did know he'd be coming back as a new immigrant. Thank G-d for Nefesh B'Nefesh, who brought Shaul HOME on 15 July.

In the Jewish calendar, Shaul's return was during a three-week period that has included tragedies for the Jewish people for a few thousand years. While it is absolutely acceptable to get engaged during that period of time, and thank G-d, many people we know did, our decision was to wait until afterward.

So Friday afternoon, after all of the mourning practices were lifted, we made it official.And now begins the fun period of time in which we get to plan a wedding. For personal reasons, we're planning on having something *tiny* and casual, and doing it as soon as possible. No jinx, no evil eye, we hope to be able to celebrate with all of our beautiful friends and family over time.

I ask your forgiveness in advance for anything I say or do, or don't say or don't do, while we're getting this together.

Thank you ALL for being such amazing and supportive friends and family!