The Baehrs in Britain: A Tribute to My Family

I (Jason) have mentioned to a few people in the past few days that if I’d known what we were getting ourselves into with this experience in London, I’m not sure I would have signed up to do it. Don’t get me wrong: it’s been an amazing and wonderful time. Indeed, if it can be considered a single “experience,” it was probably the single best experience of my life. But as we’ve explained in previous posts, it was also very challenging: living with and homeschooling three small children in a small flat in London for four months is simply hard – very hard. Choosing to do this with a full knowledge of what it would involve would, in any case, have required a great deal of courage – courage that is very well warranted, but that I might very well have lacked.

With this perspective in mind, I’d like to close out my contribution to this blog with a very heartfelt tribute to my wonderful family. The other day, as I was standing on a subway platform waiting for a train, I explained to Erinn over the phone, while fighting back tears, how utterly grateful I was for our time here – how we’ve had SO MANY experiences any ONE of which is profoundly and inexpressibly dear to me. I’d like to take a moment now to (in a second-person kind of way) give credit where credit is due for these experiences.

Oliver, you don’t really get “credit” for your “actions,” but I can praise you nonetheless for your beautiful, cheery, and easygoing disposition. Had you not been the little person you are, our experience would have been very, very different, and much less rich and rewarding. Daily you spread joy throughout our family and beyond, and our lives are blessed because of this.

Brendan and Lily, you kids are amazing. You walked countless miles and visited scores of museums – things that don’t naturally top the list of “things to do” for six- and nine-year-olds. You lived without play dates and so many of the comforts of home. THANK YOU for embracing this experience with such enthusiasm and excitement. Many times you let me drag you along to do this or that. In doing so you gave your dad a great gift – one that he’ll cherish forever and ever. I’m EXTREMELY proud of you both.

Erinn, YOU are the one that made our life in London possible. Every day you bore the brunt of parenting, serving, entertaining, and educating our little ones under some very challenging conditions: a tiny flat, a foreign environment, a lack of girlfriends, a lack of personal time or space, rain, sleet and snow, the fast and demanding pace of urban living, and much more. You did our laundry and kept the flat clean. You made a heroic journey home with an amazingly positive attitude. I cannot begin to articulate – or probably even to appreciate – everything you’ve done for us. But I know that without your humble service and dedication to us our lives would have fallen apart. Thank you for giving of yourself to me and to the rest of us in so many ways. You deserve more praise and thanks than I could ever hope to offer. I do love you dearly and thank you from the bottom of my heart. There’s no one in the world that I’d rather have shared this experience with.

Well, that’s my piece. Perhaps Erinn will want to make a final post. In any case, see below for a few more pics of our final week or so in London. Merry Christmas to you and yours.