Joanna-Denise Baykal (Jo) comes to us from Bremen in Northern Germany near Hamburg. She arrived in January 2017 when Lake was seven months old. It was love at forward sight between those two, I think! She stayed with us for a year and during that time wrote her own Au Pair Blog while she was here.

We bought our new house specifically so Jo could have her own room. She’s like part of our family. In searching for and choosing our child care path, our predominant sentiment was that Lake’s care giver would be as much like us as possible but a little bit better. More patient, more kind, more attentive, more energetic, more discerning, more confident, decisive with better judgement and speaking better a second language. Somehow I think we managed all that with Jo.

She’s a intensive care unit (ICU) hospital nurse in Germany. Among her family in Germany she has lovely mother and brother, and her sister lives in Australia with her niece and nephew. Jo is poised and mature with a great sense of humor. She’s graceful and energetic, a lifelong ballet dancer. She’s motivated and makes friends easily. She speaks English with us and German with Lake. She is the one who cemented his nickname Lake Bake. She’s a fast friend.

And she’s not only full of Love for her Lake Bake, but also for Seattle! So even though she’s back in Germany with her family now, we know we’ll see her again! We look forward to our next meeting. Thank you for everything, Jo! We love you, too!