Attacked

Something scary happened. Like the kind of scary you hear about in stories but never happens to you. Let me preface this post with the fact and miracle that everyone, thank G-d, is OK.

We were exhausted from packing and getting ready to move this past Friday. So we decided to get take-out food for Shabbat, and since we didn't have much time, we decided to split up the errands. Yehoshua went with Ziva to get diapers and wipes, while I headed to the restaurant to select our Shabbat meals. There are very few times I have gone somewhere without Ziva, and I really wanted to do our errands all together, but it seemed to make the most sense.

Once I was out, I realized what a beautiful day it was. I was enjoying my walk, and on the way home I browsed through the Bezalel Art Fair. I was a couple minutes away from my house, when I decided to call Shua and ask him what else I should get for Shabbat. The line was busy, which I thought nothing of. I tried again, but then saw that he was calling me. On the other end, he was yelling in a frantic way that I had never heard before, "RIVKAH STAY AWAY FROM THE HOUSE, WE'VE BEEN ATTACKED." First thought was that there was a bomb in the building. He managed to sputter out a couple words about a psychotic man who tried to kidnap Ziva, and that the police were on their way. I heeled over in the middle of the street, crying and screaming. I didn't know what to do- there was nothing I could do, but stare at our apartment building in the distance. An English-speaking woman asked me what was wrong, told me to sit down and offered me water from her bottle. (I said no) I told her briefly what I knew, and then I got another call from Shua telling me that it was okay to come back. The nice woman and her daughter, brought me up the elevator and back to our apartment. I was so scared, but I didn't know what had happened exactly, so I started to calm down a little- knowing the two most precious people in my life were safe and locked in.

As soon as I saw Shua, my heart dropped. His arms were tightly wrapped around Ziva, crying and shaking, with a bruise around his eye. I started hugging them both immediately, hysterically crying with him. We cried and cried and cried. I felt helpless, that I should be doing something or that I should have done something. We kissed and hugged and cried, while I tried to nurse Ziva and make sure she was taken care of. I saw bruises and scratches on Shua's face. He put an bag of ice on his head, and I could only imagine the worst. I didn't know how anyone could hurt him, he's such a GOOD person. I didn't want to ask too soon what had happened... so as we sat there in tears, we thanked G-d that everything was okay. I kept saying, "I don't know what I would do with out you or Ziva, I'm sorry I wasn't there, I will never take you for granted, thank you for protecting our baby..."

So this is the story. A man buzzed himself into our building and came over to Shua and Ziva in the lobby. He tried to pick her up and said to her "Gila, it's your Abba." Shua was really confused, and told him not to touch her because "she wasn't feeling well." He got up and went into the elevator. As the door was closing this man pushed the door open and said to Shua, "ARE YOU OK?" At that point, he realized there was something very wrong with this man. The man followed them up to our apartment, peered in, and started to tell Shua that Ziva was not his daughter. He grabbed her arm. The moment he grabbed her arm, Shua pushed him against the wall. The fought down the hallway, and although Shua got in a couple good punches, the guy (bigger than him) managed to get him to the floor, pummeled him in the head and tried to poke his eyes out. Shua thinks that since he was headed towards the staircase, his goal was to throw him down the staircase. (Which is really, really far down) All Shua was focusing on was that he couldn't black out since little, sweet Ziva was in the hallway completely unattended. He tried yelling for someone to get the baby, for someone to call the police, but no one answered. For a split-second, the guy stopped, so Shua ran to Ziva, pushed the stroller in the apartment and slammed the door on his face.

It's hard to find the words to describe how incredibly scary this was. I keep replaying it in my head, as if I had been there. I can't believe this happened in the middle of the day. I can't believe this happened and no one helped. I can't believe this happened, period. Why G-d, please tell me why did we have to go through this? This was a HUGE wake-up call- giving me a stronger appreciation for life, and encouraging me to think... a lot.

We left the apartment for Shabbat. Thank G-d we had family friends who were more than happy to have us last minute. When we came back after wards, we quickly packed up the rest of our things since Sunday was our moving day. Now, we're here, and we couldn't feel safer or happier. This morning, after our cup of coffee, Shua, Ziva and I had an amazing dance party to the Black Eyed Peas. I think we might make it a tradition. I heard it's good to get your feet off the ground, reach towards the sky, and thank G-d for every moment.