Israel is on our mind...

In has been quite some time since I have blogged. If you don't count the birthday tributes it's been too, too long. SO MANY things have gone on this summer and I hate that many will be forgotten. We all can say that they are a memory but OH BOY do our memories fade. I HATE THAT!! I love to take pictures to have all of our memories spurred on - about an event. Video is even better but man do we stink at that lately! Blogging is best or if I enjoyed writing by hand it would be journaling - if I did that NOBODY, not even me, would be able to read about the event - because the handwriting isn't the same as my curvy, swirly days. So where must I start - I really have no clue. That isn't good for a mind that races a 1,000,000 miles a minute. I will try to think back and start with the head of the house and work my way down.

The head of our home - the big cheese - the funny 1 - the 1st man in all of our daughters lives - the very MOST AMAZING man that I know. I will start with him, yes, it's only fitting to start with the most important person to me (since I am the 1 writing)! Ray has a very, very, very exciting event that is coming up in 5 DAYS. He is going on his DREAM vacation to ISRAEL!! YAY!! He is beside himself with excitement and I am SO beyond happy for HIM! As all of my blogger followers know, #1 daughter is living in Israel for the summer with the Benjamin family. She has been there already 2 months and she has a little under 1 month to go. Olivia, #4, has had a ticket since before Rachel left to go to Israel August 8th! She was planning on making the trip by herself and then return with Rachel on August 30th. WELL, before Rachel left and after Olivia got her ticket all of us girls got together and thought - wouldn't it be wonderful if we could send Dad with Liv... We didn't know how it would or could happen but we all prayed about it and dreamed that maybe, with the Lord's help, he could possibly GO! So, with all 4 girls working & a few other people pitching in and I made up the last little bit - we DID IT!! So he is leaving this coming Saturday, the 8th of August! He will be gone for 15 days. He will be with 2 of his daughters. He will be staying with dear friends. AND he will encounter the Holy Land!! The bible that he eats, drinks and sleeps - will come ALIVE! I predict he will constantly be in shambles with the emotion of what he is being honored to see but he will FOREVER be changed after this experience. I am SO EXCITED for him! Do I wish I was going - YES but if 1 of us can go I want it to be HIM! I truly believe that this is a reward from the Lord for Ray! I know I have described how amazing and selfless and humble and precious and EVERY OTHER ADJECTIVE out there but all I can say is this is a reward from heaven! For the 26 years that we have been married the man doesn't take much time off of work. If we go on vacation he STILL answers the phone! The only time that he has had off for more then a week is when he had emergency surgery on his appendix! He is such a hard worker for our family and this is HIS TIME! Work is slow right now even though the Lord continues to provide for our family but it is a good time to be away for 2 weeks so the Lord set that up for him. The only glitch in it at all is the 26 years that we have been married - we have NEVER been away from each other more then 4 nights in a row. SO, this will be slightly tough!! He will be SO busy and Grant will have camp the 1st week and then football - the 2nd week Grant starts school and football. So, we will be busy here! This weekend he did some work around the house that he knew I had been wanting done - he just couldn't leave with me not comfortable in the house. He truly is the most rare gem!! So, please keep him and Liv and Rach in your prayers. They are going to experience something that I think the Lord honors very few to see. They go with NO FEAR, only anticipation of a trip of a lifetime. I am SO happy that he is going to be there with 2 of our children. Olivia is my child that gets SO EXCITED about things and Rachel is our child that marvels at the people she loves, being blessed. She told me, "Mom, I can't wait for them to get here and see what I have seen because it's like a GREAT movie - you love it just as much the 2nd time when you experience it with someone for their 1st time". Leave it to my child to describe it like a movie! We all like a GREAT MOVIE!! So, this week will be full of last minute shopping and packing and excitement and gratefulness! Rachel will see her Daddy and precious sister - family is what she is needing right now. I will stay and hold the fort down with the others kiddos and a few extras. Ray and Liv will go to the beginning of where everything happened that is important to us! What a grateful heart I feel to the Lord, He is SO GOOD to me and my family!!

Just a bit about Rachy. I have started 2 blogs about her time in Israel and I haven't finished either 1 of them - OH BOY! She is doing WONDERFUL. She is LOVING her time in Israel and is having a bit of a hard time thinking about leaving a land that she has grown to love more and more. She knows that the Lord gave her these 3 months to stamp her for eternity and what a grateful soul she is. She misses her family, her friends, her bed, American food, air conditioning, driving a car - but there isn't anything that can compare to being near to the people that the Lord has called you to pray for, the Jewish people! SO, I think coming home will be a transition but she knows she has work to do here too. If it's just to work to plan another trip - that works too. We have missed her SO MUCH this Summer but there is nothing like God's AMAZING GRACE! Of course skype is wonderful too - I'm so grateful for skype. It's so great for her to come in from a day filled with AMAZING memories and for her to share them with us while they are FRESH on her mind. So that is a bit of what is going on with Ms. Rachel. Here is a few pictures of her time in Israel.

This is the family that Rachel is staying with. The parents - Gary and Jerri, and then their son Preston. Their daughters Courtney and Destiny came for a surprise visit for 2 weeks with their sons Shiloh and Judah. Rachel has been in WONDERFUL hands with people that are now family to her and our whole family.

This is a window that is in the Prayer Room at Succat Hallel - it looks out over Jerusalem and faces the Temple Mount (the gold dome).

This is a picture of the Western Wall (wailing Wall). You can see the men are on the left and then a wall separates them from the women.

This is the Dead Sea and Mineral Beach.

This is a picture of Shiloh - the 1st permanent place where there was a sanctuary built to house the ark of the covenant. Many, many other things happened in this city. To think that this was most likely the holy of holies! WOW!This is a brief video clip of Shiloh

This is the Temple Mount and Ms. Rachel

The Tower of David - near the Jaffa Gate entrance to the Old City of Jerusalem.

The Eastern Gate!

This is very few pictures that she has taken but a few highlights for me.

So, that is a enough for this blog I believe. Sarah I just wrote about on her birthday. Hannah is looking for a job and loving life with Austin. Grant is playing pee-wee football and loving it - and he starts 4th grade very soon. I am loving being a wife, Mother and mostly a child of the Most High! Grandma is feeling wonderful and blessing us with every day that she is with us.

I will leave you with a couple of my favorite scriptures that are very fitting for this blog -- the 1st 1 is what the Benjamins and Rachel are doing in Israel - "I have posted watchemen on your walls, O Jerusalem, they will never be silent day or night. You who call on the Lord, give yourselves no rest, and give him no rest till He establishes Jerusalem and makes her the praise of the earth" Isaiah 62:6&7 and then a short by powerful scripture that God actually said if you do this I will prosper you - Psalm 122:6. "Pray for the peace of Jerusalem. May all who love this city prosper". The Father loves Israel - it's amazing to think on that.

That's a wrap on the life and times of "The Bakers" - for now. I know I should blog more because I can sit here and think of many things I have NOT blogged about that were important! But hey, I do the best I can!!

~Much love to all!