Bitter Sweet

It is strange how fast time flies. I am leaving this area in several days. I will be in Rome with Hope Maglich for about a week then I get to once again land over the United States. There is something within me that cherishes the moments of seeing my home country from the air. It is familiar and welcoming. Although there is a lot of frustration wrapped up in the words USA, there is also a smile and a warm fuzzy feeling for me that I cannot get anywhere else, and believe me, I have flown into many a country and I don't ever get the same feeling.

I want to thank those that have been praying for the family. In fact after Mark's saga there was more. My last month has been actually rather tough Devin the oldest almost drowned at a swimming party. Kim was attacked in the head by a teen on a bike Maja has been sick for about a month with different viruses, and Kylie has bad asthma that flares up when you least need it to. Please continue to pray for this family. I see Satan attacking them and not wanting them to be here to spread God's truth. It has been an honor to be used by God these last weeks as support and helper...I am seeing myself though starting to drain and this week for me could not come faster. Though the family will be greatly missed I am very much looking forward to a break and a breather. For the first time in months I will not have banana on me from Maja, or hear another whine from Kylie. But I will miss Devin's amazing imagination and Kylie's picky likings, and Maja's adorable laugh. This is the epitome of a bitter sweet moment.

So what is next for me...that is a question that everyone seems to ask me and I even ask myself. I am actually finding my way back to Europe to Lithuania. I have some "unfinished business" to take care of..some letting go and giving God. For those that may not have known or it slipped your mind, but in Lithuania I struggled in many ways. Much of the struggle was through death of 5 people in my life. I still grieve over that lose and sometimes it is not the healthiest. I don't have time to tell you all the details, but I am excited to go back to Lithuania as symbolically giving that to God again. I am also helping my good friend move there. I will be her support and friend as she transitions into the crazy place of LCC (Lithuania Christian College) as a hall director. I will be there for 2 weeks at max (the details are still being worked out).

This blog will continue for a bit at least. And though I have not been that dedicated or very good at this blog, I have enjoyed it and will keep trucking on...the more I practice, just maybe the better writer/communicator I will become...and no, that is not my ultimate goal in life.

So goodbye for now and my life in England. I will probably write some more but not much. Enjoy your Christmas time and all that includes. For me I am looking sooooo forward to friends and family, fires in the fireplace, fir trees, fifteen inches of snow, and fuzzy warm feelings.

Blessings.

To my dear friends and family

Sadly I am writing this blog on a more serious note. I have just returned from The Netherlands to find that Mark (the husband of the family) is seriously ill. It is a rather long story so I will spare the details, but he has been diagnosed with a severe infection (forget the title) that has reached his blood system and is now throughout his whole body. He also has an immune deficiency which is not helping matters at this point. He has been in the hospital for two days and the doctors project two more and the minimum. The family is doing alright overall, but I see it slowly draining them and it is very stressful taking the children to the hospital to see their father.

Prayer:
Pray for Mark - that his body will respond to what the doctors do and that his spirit may remain positive.

Kim- She is one strong lady, that God will continue to sustain her and be her guide and comfort in this time.

Children - Devin has been taking this whole thing rather hard.

The doctors - wisdom on what procedures to do (operating is an option, but not favored)

Me- I have a rather cool head right now. I want to remain helpful and available and be the healthy support that Kim and Mark need.

I will try to keep you all updated. Thanks in advance for the prayers. We serve a Great Big God...may HE be glorified!

A time to stay still and a time to move

Well, now that I am very off on my regularity (is that a word?) with writing in this blog I have decided to still try to keep you updated.

Since coming back from Germany, visiting my good friend Hope, God has been really challenging me. I would love to share with you all the details, but alas, I don't have the time, nor am I that good of a writer to communicate with you what God has been doing. His work cannot be reduced to my words. But the "conclusions" I will share with you, because your prayers and support will be needed as I tackle another adventure.

When I first came to England, I had no idea what to expect. It was adventure that I was willing to take and learn from. My original plans were: stay with the family till Christmas and then possibly come back till June. Well, that will not be happening. Although part of me would love to stay, my work here is done. God has been showing that to me more and more clearly.

I like to talk in stories or word pictures so imagine with me....

I, Katherine Baker, am a plane. I am not a very big plane nor am I one of those boring planes that are grey or white. I am a little yellow plane. I am housed in a huge airport. Although it may be big, it runs smoothly and is fairly predictable. All sorts of plans come in and out, in and out. I sit and watch the big planes. I sit and watch what goes in each plane. And though I do have the right gear in me that is sufficient to take off and leave, most of the planes around me are bigger and have much more. As a little yellow plane I have not done as much as the bigger plane. I do leave the airport occasionally and take-off, but never very far. In fact, there have only been a couple of time that I have left the perimeters of the multi-terminal airport.

Then one day something happened. There was more fuel pumped into me and I was given the okay to go down the runway. I started to shake a little, for I realized that this was not a normal flight that I was used to. I was not caring something from one end of the airport to another. I was not going on a small mission and coming back. I was leaving. I was leaving and was not supposed to return. As I took off fear but with excitement gripped me. As I flew higher and higher, the airport became smaller and smaller. It is hard to say goodbye. I must land somewhere else. I must find another airport to land. As much as I want to go back to the old and familiar it is time to go to the new and unexplored. But to steal a Switchfoot line of a great song... "I am a plane in the sunset with nowhere to land..." I have been in the air for awhile and I am needing to land. I can't go to the airport that I came from, I need to become my own. If I kept staying at that airport, I would remain as the little yellow plane. God has bigger plans for me. And though I first thought that might be England. God is not letting me land here. He is wanting me to move on to somewhere else. We shall see where I land. We shall see what happens. I will need to land soon to get more fuel, but anywhere I stop will be only a pit-stop until I get my orders to land.

Though that is not a perfect story and a little weird (like live with three children, everything is told in story form) it is kind of how I feel and see myself in life. You can pray about where I will be landing and what that will look like.

This also means I only have one month left here. That doesn't mean that letters are not appreciated. You can write them to:
23 Blunt St
Carlisle
CA2 5LT
UK

I will try hard to write you back and keep you informed.

My plans for the remainder of my time is packed and I am excited. I am planning on having a quiet retreat by myself in the lake district for several days...meaning I want to be in the hills and mountains with God. I am planning on going to Dutch L'Abri and checking out what it is like.I hope to go to Wales with a friend and going to visit a friend in Lithuania. That is a lot to fit in, so I cannot promise constant updating, but I will try hard.

Pray for the remainder of my time and that God will continue to reveal more of HIMSELF to me. That is what really matters. Although it seems important to what I should do with my life and who I am, the real question is WHO IS GOD? I want to fall more in love with God.

Grace and Peace

Pictures...Finally

So, after weeks of trying to:
1. Have enough time to download the pictures onto my computer
2. Find a way to transfer them to another computer that is online to post
3. Finding a computer that is not surrounded by kids, sparks, and other random things that seem to come my way... I have finally gotten the ability to post some pictures.

Enjoy what you are about to see as I type this blog telling the story of each picture.

ONE: This picture is indeed my small bedroom. In fact it is so small I can almost touch the door from my bed (which they are on opposite sides of the room). In this picture you can see my wardrobe (yes, I have a wardrobe...that is so cool) and the corner of my bed.
That is the width of my room. You are pretty much seeing it all. I don't spend much time in my room generally. I like it though the size may be small, but there is rarely time for me to spend just chilling in my room. Although it is a great hideaway when needed. As you can see I brought a lot of comforts from home to make my room feel more like me.

TWO: This is a fuller picture of my bed with the small but very important window (closed) that looks out to the front of the house. The street I live on, Blunt Street, is very peaceful and I rather like looking out and watch people pass by.My room is on the second floor so I feel more sneaking spying on the pedestrians below. But as stated before there is not much time to just sit anymore and so my peeping neighbor days are well over.

THREE and FOUR: When I do find a moment to spare and if perchance there is some sun, I find myself either walking to one of two places. I either go to a public field that is relatively close by and frolic among the sheep paths (no pictures of that yet). Or I go to Bitts Park. Bitts park can be found on the other side of the city center of Carlisle. It is not huge, but a beautiful change to the life of the indoors. I either bring a book or my journal and read while the sun kisses my cheeks.
English gardens and parks are kept so nice. I constantly see someone working on them. It would be a job that I don't mind having, especially when it is cold outside. It is fun to watch people as they walk there dog, play with their child or just stroll along the carefully kept paths. This is one of my favorite places thus far in Carlisle.

FIVE: Most of my days are not spent looking out of my window, in my room, or at Bitt's park. I spend more time with three energy and precious children. They can be a challenge at times but I have really started to get to know them more and have bonded with them more than I thought. This is a picture of Devin. He is the oldest and thus far requires the most energy. He is an active child that like to keep me on my toes. He is a smart child that sometimes likes to challenge me with it. Other times he can be the sweetest angel. Pushing boundaries is his game. His loves of life are drawing sharks, making up worlds, and turning anything into a weapon. It is fun seeing him change and grow up even within the weeks I have been here.

SIX: Kylie is the middle child, though she likes to take over and I see more first born tendencies in her. Though Devin may tend to act up more, Kylie has won the whiner award of the century. She likes to complain and whine her way into every one's heart. She also knows everything and has fun telling me this frequently. Oh, I love this girl, she makes me laugh a lot with her imagination and her joy of life (when she is not whining). She loves to cuddle, go on fairy hunts, and do everything Devin does. Her favorite color is raspberry (not pink) and she loves to sing. Sleeping Beauty is her favorite princess and she loves to ask questions about everything she hears.

SEVEN: Maja (pronounced liked Mia or Maya) is the baby. She is not yet of the speaking age and so all day long we communicate through grunting. Before I came to work with them I was under the impression that she was older (talking, etc.). If there is one age group that I struggle with it is indeed where Maja is in life. It is hard when she does not use words and needs something. God knows what I need though, and to be honest, I have probably bonded with Maja the most. I spend the most time with her throughout my days. One of her favorite things to do is read with me...more she makes the sound "lie...lie...lie" as we read through Veggies Tales, Noah's Ark, and Good Night Moon. WE can sit on the blue comfy chair for hours making different sound effects with our mouths. One of her favorites is the hushing motion. We have a lot of fun together. I am starting to see her rebellious streaks come through, she is human after all. It is very interesting watch the development of a human being unfold. I read about it in my books and now I am seeing it with my eyes.

EIGHT: When I am not with the family, you could probably find me hanging out with this girl...Elouise. She has become my closet friend here. She is from South Africa and is full of spirit. I like this girl a lot. We make a good team, though we are rather different from each other. Here we are in Scotland shopping in Gretna Greene. It is a beautiful area. We have a lot of fun together and I feel very blessed to have her in my life.

SIDE NOTE:
I have been able to travel while in England. I have been to Scotland, the lake district and Germany. I am planning on still going to Lithuania, Switzerland, and possibly Holland. I am not sure yet. The next set of pictures I will be focusing on my trip to Germany I went through Scotland for this trip too. To be honest my hands are getting tired of typing a lot so I will be narrating less.

NINE and TEN: I actually had a rather eventful trip to Germany. It took me about 25 hours to get there from England. I only traveled 5 of those hours and waited up to 20 hours for my modes of transportation. I will have to tell that story in more detail later. Below is a picture from my train of the beautiful landscape of Scotland. It was a pretty...NO...gorgious day!

ELEVEN: In Germany I was visiting my great friend Hope Maglich from Oxford, Ohio. This semester she is student teaching at a military base in Germany. I took a well needed break to visit her. Below is her classroom (along with my crazy experimental shoots with my new camera). She teaches first grade. The best part of the trip was to be spending time with a fellow believer, who is a female, and knows me. It was great praying for each other every night and refocusing on Christ together. Being there was like getting a cup of fresh water. I was in great need of that...the Lord knows!

TWELVE: We did not do a lot of exploring when I visited her, which was exactly what I needed. I needed to rest and be re-filled. We did though venture out to the Birkenstock factory where we stopped at the Rhine River for a quick pick-me up. Come it...It is the Rhine River...how cool is that?

THIRTEEN and FOURTEEN: To end our time together, we walked through a German Park after we filled our tummies with amazing Chinese food. This restaurant was completely empty and we were given the best of service. Our host and waiter were very gracious and the food was gorgeous. Taking a walk through this park ended my Germany adventure very well as Hope and I "debriefed" about our times in Europe and shared with each other the beautiful testimonies of our God's goodness to us while living abroad. This is also the park we had a fantastic photo shoot at...below being just one of them... can I just say I love this girl? I love her. We laughed, cried, and encouraged one another so much in the short amount of time we were together. It was so wonderful!

I hope you enjoyed that rather long blog. The pictures do add a lot. I hope you leave this blog with a smile on your face and are filled with joy. Blessings all! Grace and Peace.

The lessons in Life

I wish I had more time to write on this blog. The problem is today, this computer has been randomly sparking so I can only write in little chunks before I have to turn off the power, and then the battery dies...how crazy...you can all pray for a better computer situation.

I just got back from a great trip to Germany visiting my great friend Hope Maglich. Words cannot describe the wonderful break and relaxation I felt while being there. It was so good to be in the presence of someone that knows you and love the Lord and is in a similar stage in life. It was so comforting and wonderful to read the Word together and pray all the time for each other. We re-focused together on our King and focused on His aspects as a Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, and our Prince of Peace. We both realized it was all four of those characteristics we were slacking on when coming before God. It is hard when the spiritual status of the country you are in is dark and oppressive. God was faithful in bringing we to her so we could be filled. That is what I felt. I was a cup just waiting to be filled with Him and I got that refreshing amount.

Besides filling each other's cups we explored the beauty of an autumn Germany countryside, some down town Darmstardt living, and we did many picture shoots. Sadly I still cannot post them...my camera will not hook up to the family's...it is a challenging life I live.

There will be more to come, but I can since the sparking so I must go. Thanks for the loyal readers for your prayers...keep them coming!

Grace and Peace.

And It Keeps Going

Yesterday, three women and I went on a train for an hour and a half to a town/city called Preston. There, we went to a women's conference. It was good for me to not only have a break from the children, but to force myself to think even deeper about my life. Below are thoughts that came from the event...

This past week was a harder one on me... it will be hard to describe in words. I have found myself being in a position that I am now very much questioning. The needs are less as well as my direction. Have I changed from "bumming" around in Ohio to "bumming" in England? I know the answer is "NO", but some days I don't know what I am doing in England. I don't have to have clear plans laid out for me, though it would be nice. I can't seem to shake the feeling though that at this moment I am "wasting" my time here. And I know I am not. I work hard everyday with three very busy children. I am building diverse relationships with people all over the world. I can see God using me, but I keep hearing a voice that is telling me to do more. Is this God, or my insecurities?

I feel that I am in a vulnerable time of life. My life is a blank slate and that could be used in many ways. It could be used for God, not for God, or it could be wasted by trying to figure out what to do with it. I do have to take a jump...a plunge into the unknown again. I have to walk in faith. I could use prayer for that. It can be very nerve racking in a different culture to take that step. Having a very small and still building a support group, it makes things even more difficult. I feel God calling me somewhere and using me somewhere else besides "nannying" but as to what that looks like, I am and am continuing to be clueless.

So this blog is a cry out to the supporters I do have back home. Prayer I am learning is more and more powerful than I can ever realize...so join me. Thanks.

Becoming Familiar

This week went fast for me. You know what that means? I am finally getting use to it. Things are falling into place and I have been here for one month. I know the area better. The buildings look normal and the direction of traffic is even becoming old hat, at least when walking...first look right...then left. I have not adventured to drive yet...too chicken.

This week I have played some double duty. Mark, the father, has been gone on a business trip and Kylie the cute four year old has been home from school because of asthma. Needless to say my "free" time has been less which includes my computer time. After working all day with children the last thing I want to do is write a detailed account of my day to the cosmic world. I want to sit and turn off any form of my brain and zone out. I respect motherhood a lot more now, and if anything I am taking away a lot of good examples of how to raise children. It has been fun learning what it means to be a mother. If that honour ever becomes mine, I will take it and cherish it. I am okay if that doesn't happen for awhile though...kids are a handful.

What else should I talk about...how about some of the differences I have seen between the countries of England and the US...

Greetings:
US: "hi, how's it going?" or "What's up" or "how are you?"
England: "you 'ight" (are you alright?) or "hi ya" (like a karate sound).

Schooling for children:
US: Children start school in Kindergarten usually at the age of five and some places it is not all day long school. All day school does not necessary start till you are six.
England: Kylie is four and she is in all day school. It is called Reception. Devin is six and he is in second grade or year two as they call it (I was 8/9 when I was in second grade).

Higher Education:
US: Our university system is usually a four year long program and then on to masters, etc.
England: The A levels are after "high school" for two years when children are 16 and 17. They can then go on to university which is usually three years or they can do college (more like our community college system, but not quiet).

US: A professor at a university can be fired or let go if they are not tenured (I don't know much about that to be honest).
England: There is no concept of tenurship here (is that a word?). There is instead a hierarchy. You are first a lecturer, senior lecturer and then a you can become a professor. This is all dependant on the amount of education you have and experience. When hired you have a year where the university watches you, if you do well, you stay until you die. You can not be fired or demoted. You can change universities if you want.

Sports:
US: In the fall, people like to watch the end of baseball and the beginning of football.
England: Rugby and football are the main sporting events. It is funny being here and males asking me how my football works. They don't understand it. It is rather a fun change explaining to males the sport.

Food:
US: We eat chips, cookies, crystal lite, and french fries
England: They eat crisps, biscuits, squash and chips


That is all for now...I will think of other wonderful things to post later.