Anixi Au Pair

MEET A HOST FAMILY IN COLORADO

Πιθανόν να αναρωτιέσαι πως είναι να συμμετέχεις στο πρόγραμμα au pair και να μένεις με μια οικογένεια υποδοχής; Να ζεις με ξένους… Δεν είσαι ο μόνος :). Κάθε χρόνο διεξάγεται ο διαγωνισμός “Au Pair of the Year”, όπου οι οικογένειες υποδοχής βραβεύουν τους συμμετέχοντες Παρακάτω μπορείς να διαβάσεις τα γράμματα που στέλνουν για τον διαγωνισμό οι οικογένειες για την συνεργασία τους με τους συμμετέχοντες στο πρόγραμμα. Ελπίζουμε ότι θα σε βοηθήσει να καταλάβεις καλύτερα πως είναι να συμμετέχεις και να ζεις με μια οικογένεια υποδοχής.

Το γράμμα της οικογένειας για την Αννέτα

It’s not often that a single person can change the course of a life. However, our lives were changed forever during the summer of 2012 when Anneta drove across Athens to help baptize our daughter.

We’d had a mad, chaos-filled trip across Greece, not remotely deserving of the word ‘vacation,’ as we traveled to visit my wife’s mother. I wasn’t even there for most of it, showing up at the end of August. My wife had been in Greece since mid-June, soldiering on solo through the heat, traffic, and the unique logistical-chaos that is Greece in the summertime, with our 10-month-old daughter. By the time I arrived, my wife was just about wiped out: the lack of sleep, the perpetual family/friends drama, zero down time, and the challenges of being abroad with an infant.

Adding me to the mix didn’t help much either. Now two exhausted parents got to stay up all night with no air conditioning, deal with the hordes of tourists, and perform the daily rituals of infant-care in a place far removed from the conveniences of home. Throughout all these trials we asked ourselves when and how this trip had ever sounded like a good idea back in the winter/springtime when we planned it. We wondered if we were going to make it to the baptism, the primary reason we’d come to Greece this year. We wanted our daughter to be baptized in the same beautiful Greek Orthodox church my wife and her mother had been baptized in, and where grandparents were married.

Into this grumpy, exhausted, edgy, and de-spirited mess of people came Anneta. She arrived, as they say in stories, just in the nick of time, helping my wife and her disabled mother care for our daughter in the hectic days just before, during, and after the baptism. She wasn’t even technically working for us yet; she simply wanted to help in our time of need. And she was simply exceptional. Anneta showed us then, and has never once stopped showing us, what a truly wonderful person she is.

Fast forward to September of 2012: our family was excited, but still a bit nervous, about this whole au pair thing. Were we truly ready to have someone we barely knew live with us and care for our only daughter? Looking back, we can’t imagine having those thoughts now. Anneta is a blessing to us each and every day. In a complex mix of actions, skills, and personal characteristics, Anneta has completely blown away our highest expectations of what an au pair is and what an au pair does. Perhaps we were a blank slate, having no prior experience as a host family, but we were no strangers to live-in childcare either. My own 22-year-old niece lived with us for several months after our daughter was born, and helped us tremendously. Unfortunately, with the challenges of post-graduation life, boyfriends, and multiple sisters in town, we realized that we needed something better. We just didn’t know what.

Anneta is that what. She is everything we needed and more than we ever dreamed of or wished for…she is exceptional. Anneta hit the ground running, helping out around the house the very day she arrived, even after the grueling flights from Athens to Colorado. Within days she had a comprehensive child care routine established, a product of her own input/recommendations and the guidance and wishes of our family. Her competence and confidence as a childcare professional was evident from day one, a huge blessing to a pair of first-time parents who tended to fret over every little thing. She adapted to our particular family and lifestyle needs without any apparent effort, though I’m sure we drove her crazy more than once. She never lets any frustration or annoyance show, and — in hindsight — she was usually the one making the right choice and giving the best advice. Such control and self-awareness is hard to find at any age. Anneta treats our family and our home like it is her very own. Beyond the bounds of our house and daily routine, she has brought us into the fold of her wonderful family, who — back in Greece — have taken time and effort to visit, care for, and be with my wife’s mother over the holidays.

Anneta has enriched our lives in so many ways. Our daughter has a provider, a playmate, a nurse, and a ‘nana’ for life. My wife has a trusted friend who provides powerful advice, assistance, and personal dedication to our family’s wellbeing. I have an outstanding childcare provider, a trusted advisor, and a talented young women who is truly “on par” with our family and is now even closer to us than some members of our rather small family circle.

We believe that Anneta represents the pinnacle of what it means to be an au pair. We dearly love this amazing young woman and hope you will choose her to be your Au Pair of the Year… she truly is exceptional.