Nanny

So this week we had a lot of "nanny emotions."  We'll start with the sad.  Our first and only nanny, Kelly, watched the girls for the last time on Monday (well...last time as our nanny...we told her she is welcome to babysit anytime :) ).  Kelly has decided to take a position with OneU, a college ministry that our church supports at University of Maryland.  She is going to be so great in her new position and we are very excited for her, but we are so very sad to see her go.  I don't think it really hit me until I sat down to write her a little thank you card and started recalling all that she had done for us.  Kelly started watching the girls at 3 months.  They were 9 pounds, didn't do much but eat, poop and throw-up, and we were still pretty clueless as to what to do with these little girls.  Kelly came in full of confidence, jumped right in to taking care of them and really put our minds at ease as we left our little peanuts in her care day after day.  She saw them through so many milestones, sitting up, crawling, cruising, walking, eating baby food, eating solid food,  sleeping through the night, taking naps in their cribs instead of their chairs (I give her 100% of the credit for training them to do this!), talking and so much more.  She cared for them when they were sick, taught them how to go down the slide at the play-ground, made ever day fun, and really cared for them like they were her own family!   I can't express how grateful we are for her and for the care she gave our little girls.  I write this with tears in my eyes thinking about how much our girls love her and how sad they will be not to have her around everyday!!  We are so grateful that our little girlies had such a great nanny at such a critical time in their lives. 

The other side of our "nanny emotions" this week has revolved around the search for a new nanny.  When Kelly found out she was going to be leaving, she let us know that she had a friend who would be interested in taking her place, and after interviewing her and seeing her with the girls, we hired her.  We were so relieved that the process of finding a new nanny was so easy...the search for a nanny was not a fun road before we found Kelly.  However, the day before we left for vacation this summer, we heard from the nanny that she was not going to be able to watch the kids after all, and we were left to again open up our search for someone to care for our babies (side note:  we completely understand why this girl was not able to watch the girls...we aren't upset with her...we were just very stressed at the thought of having to search for someone new).   Trying to find someone to entrust your children with is not fun!  How do you know that they are going to be honest in their interview, How do you know that they are going to take good care of your kids?  How do you know that they will honor your family values? How do you know that they will love them as much as you do?  The answer, of course, is...you don't!  You just have to go with your gut.  When we were looking for a nanny the first time, we interviewed a lot of people.  They all sounded great on paper, most of them seemed good in person, but until we found Kelly, we never felt in our gut that any of them would be good for OUR girls.  Nothing we could really put our finger on, but...we just knew that they didn't fit.  This time around, we started feeling the same way.  We interviewed quite a few very well-qualified nannys.  After each one left, we would say, yep, they seem good.  They seem like they would make a good nanny.  BUT...we just weren't excited about any of them.  And, I really wanted to be EXCITED before we gave someone the go-ahead to basically help us to raise our kids.  So, Saturday, we had two interviews.  The first one was a Hispanic lady that seemed great.  She was patient, sweet, had good experience and spoke Spanish.  We both really liked her.  But...I just couldn't get over the fact that she didn't speak much English.  Yes, we could communicate...I know enough Spanish and she knew enough English to get by...but what if the girls were sick...would I have confidence that if I gave her specific instructions for how much/how often to give them medicine  that she would get it right?  Maybe?  But I just didn't know... so I was left to consider that all morning.  Until our next interview that is.  At 12, we had an interview with Heidi.  She walked in the door, shook our hands, and I immediately felt at ease.  We went through the interview and everything she said just confirmed my ease.  She has everything we are looking for in a nanny and then some.  As soon as she left I told Cesar I loved her and wanted to cancel the rest of the interviews!  We had found our nanny.  So, Monday evening, I called her up and offered her the job and yesterday she accepted!  YEA!  I can't tell you what a relief it is to have found someone we can be confident in.  Obviously, we don't know her from anyone else we interviewed..so we will still pray that she will take good care of our babies, but we are confident that she is the one God has given us to take care of our precious little girls!!!  I can now enjoy the rest of my summer vacation without the stress that this has been putting on us.  Woo-Hoo...bring on the sun, the pool, and the relaxation (oh..and the cleaning, house organizing, and all the other stuff that goes along with taking care of a family!).

(sorry for all the boring details of this post...remember that this blog is how I am keeping record of things, so bear with me!  Guess I should have put that at the beginning before you read all this..whoops...sorry!).