2 International Moves in 1 Year

We had so much fun the first time, we thought we'd do it again! That's right, we are moving back state-side as my husband was offered an amazing job.  I recently completed my Masters degree in Social Work and am also on the job hunt.  In the meantime I am 'in charge' of organizing this move as my husband still has a few months left to complete his Masters degree and is working full time.  This has included finding an apartment, a car, phone plans, and of course finding out how best to move our STUFF.

We agreed that our appliances and furniture would be sold and are hoping to find a renter who will want to buy those things off of us to reduce the stress of selling off our items piece by piece.  Most of our kitchenware will be sold as well, but there are items I would like to bring back (aside from clothing) such as Books and Dishes.

We have managed to pare down our books to only 48 in different sizes and take up less than 2 shelves in our bookcase.  Our dishes were wedding gifts and I LOVE them and want to keep them very badly.  I thought at first that two boxes worth of shipping might be the way to go, as the main issue with these items are weight rather than space.  But after contacting 5 different shipping companies I realized it is going to cost between 400-500 dollars to ship, which is too much.

So that leaves us only a few options:

1) Give away/Sell/Buy New in the US
2) Ask friends for help who are visiting this summer
3) Pay $60-$70 for the extra bags at the airport
4) Leave a few things in Israel with family until we can bring them over

At this moment I'm leaning towards a mix of numbers 2-4 with a few fabulous friends having already offered to help out.  As you can see, it's not that these items take up a lot of space but they add up in weight and with a 50 lb weight limit at the airport, it could be an issue.  Any thoughts, tips, tricks or advice on moving internationally?!  Please let me know!  I need all the help I can get!