It's the small stuff that reminds me why we're here

Just before my office closed for the Passover break (yes, the entire company closed for the whole holiday!), our departmental secretary came into my office and handed me a memo. 

Now my Hebrew is pretty passable at this point, but we still follow a ritual where my eyes glaze over when confronted with any document containing densely printed Hebrew... and after asking her how important it is that I read every word, she dictates the Cliff Notes© version of whatever's printed on the page.

Obviously this arrangement requires that I have a tremendous amount of trust in this woman or else I'd end up in a 'Colonel Blake - Radar O'Reilly' situation with no idea what I was signing or agreeing to. 

But so far she has been quite helpful and more than willing to screen my memos.   And of course, since her English is almost non-existent there exists a nice symbiosis whereby I get to check her outgoing correspondence to our English-speaking clients.   

I suppose that in the back of her mind is the knowledge that if she ever pulls a fast one on me with a Hebrew memo, the next English document she faxes out may not be um, exactly what she expected. 

I think they called this concept Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD) during the cold war.  :-)

Anyway, getting back to the memo...

It turns out that it was an invitation for our daughter Ariella (and of course her parents) to attend a Bar/Bat Mitzvah reception at the company's headquarters next month.  My secretary explained that the company keeps track of when employee's children pass important milestones such as Bar/Bat Mitzvah, graduation, army induction, etc., and arranges parties and gifts to mark these events. 

My head is still spinning from the very idea of it.

Not only do I not have to use up every last vacation day in order to celebrate the Jewish Holidays (something that made taking 'real' family vacations nearly impossible while we lived/worked in the US), but my company actually keeps track of when my children become Bar/Bat Mitzvah and throws receptions in their honor!

My secretary explained that it will be a very nice evening with yummy refreshments, and all the kids will receive gifts in honor of their Bar/Bat Mitzvah.  The crazy part is that she seemed genuinely non-plussed that I found this at all unusual.

Y'know, no matter how many stock options or other real/imaginary perks were thrown at me while I worked in the US... I never once felt that my employers really understood who I was (or cared, for that matter).  Yet here I am, earning a fraction of what I used to make in the states... and I feel like my name is printed in bold letters at the top of the company's annual report.

It really is the small stuff that reminds me why we're here.