Anixi Au Pair

ORNELA PARTICIPANT OF THE YEAR 2013

“My family grew and I feel like I now have parents in Greece and in America!”

Συγχαρητήρια στην Ορνέλα την πρώτη Ελληνίδα που κερδίζει τον διαγωνισμό της Au Pair International για την au pair της χρονιάς στην Αμερική.

Διάβασε το γράμμα της για την οικογένεια που την φιλοξενεί και την εμπειρία της από το πρόγραμμα.

“It is hard to write about my whole year and my new family in only a letter but I will do my best!

I am young girl from Greece and you might not know it but being an Au Pair is not very common there. Everybody told me that I am crazy for even just thinking about going to America to live with a family that I don’t even know. My parents were anxious, too, but when I Skyped with the Vellios family they felt much better. They had a chance to speak to Keith, Andreas and the kids and they started to feel more confident about letting there daughter go to another country all by herself because they knew that this family would take good care of me and support me during my year in a foreign country.

When we first read that I would have two host fathers, you can imagine that my parents didn’t really know what to expect and how to react. But also this was not an issue anymore after we first met them on Skype. Instead they completely changed their opinion about same-sex couples and understand that this is a very normal family with parents who love their kids more than anything in the world! But let’s move on to the time when I finally arrived in the US. Although I had a very good feeling about my host family, I was scared and shy and I didn’t really know what to do with myself on the first days so I just tried to hide in my room but Andreas and Keith didn’t let me! They sent the kids to me to bring me out, even for dinner time I didn’t know whether I am supposed to join them or not. But Georgia and Peter came into my room, grabbed my hand and dragged me to the dining room.

Georgia and Peter helped me a lot in the beginning. They accepted me immediately and I just fell in love with them. They are wonderful, kind, warm-hearted kids! They made me feel so happy that I didn’t feel homesick or lonely at all! I love to spend my time with them and to see them grow up every single day. What I really enjoy here are the little moments with the kids. Other people might think that this is just an ordinary day and they may be right, but for me it is also a moment where I realize how happy I am right now. So one day for example, we went to a city center with a small lake. We like to go there because the walk around the lake is really nice! We were racing, learning Greek letters, drinking juice and then we sat on a giant rock close to the water. It was quiet and nice and Georgia and Peter took a stick in their hands and pretended that they were fishing. It was that moment when I thought that this is a perfect day. And then I realized that the kids thought the same because Peter said he wished we could stay there forever.

Another special thing for me is bedtime, every time I put them to bed, Peter asks for two hugs and Georgia is hiding under the blanket and when I finally “find” her she gets out of the blanket and asks with big surprise, how I could find her. It makes me laugh every time! When they finally lie down I usually sing them a Greek lullaby and they fall asleep 🙂

This year was an amazing experience for me! My family grew and I feel like I now have parents in Greece and in America and even my two families got to know each other. Keith and Andreas and my parents talk on Skype (they are working together on finding me a boyfriend, even though I’m scared for them to…). Andreas’s parents even went to Athens twice and met my family. So my two families feel like they are connected and became a gigantic Greek-American family now. All this made me decide to stay another year, even though in the beginning I kept telling myself I would just stay for one year.

I love Georgia, Peter, Keith and Andreas so much and want to thank them for everything they did for me! I can not imagine a better host family!”