I am convinced Gabriella is an angel sent to us to help us get through this year. She has
been with us since late July 2019. Throughout the year, she has been compassionate and fun with our children, as well as patient and respectful with me and my husband, providing an immense relief of stress for us and an optimal home environment.
While she is with our family, I am confident that our children are learning and being creative
while enjoying various activities. Gabriella and our children paint and build, they dance and sing, learn new songs and skills. Our children are learning about their emotions and testing boundaries, while they are safe in her care and learn to value time together.
In our roles and mother/father, wife/husband, professionals and leaders, my husband and I
recognize the imperfect diets and activities of the world we and our children live in. We want to protect and perfect them. It’s hard to be able to describe this to someone when you’re trying to get to know them; in this, Gabriella has been a great fit for our family as we strive to live healthy, active lives. She recognizes our trials and sees what we are striving for, promotes this in every practical way for our children, without limiting experiences of childhood. For example, instead of motivating our children with food or activities, she recognized that we would much rather they be motivated by experiences, time learning or doing something new or exciting. Without judging our occasional eating out over home cooking, she does her best to promote our children eating veggies and limiting added sugar. In modeling this in her own healthy lifestyle habits but also not drawing unnecessary attention to it. We appreciate her so in this ongoing challenge.
She has been welcoming to various cultural activities and takes on changes and feedback in
stride. It’s a challenging balance, maintaining a routine to provide individuals in a family the structure to work towards particular goals, for example a recital or match, while keeping spontaneity to take advantage of each new day, trying new recipes and activities. Without overextending herself, Gabriella has tried to make the most of every day, for herself and our family.
She is flexible and a great communicator. She has endured a transition of us moving cross
country, into a new home, into new jobs and schools, but has moved with all the changes and new
beginnings without a hitch. We also did not expect our family to be geographically separated for periods of time because of our professional careers, but she is composed and prepared for potential changes as they come up.
Another challenge for Gabriella and our family has been change in the comforts of what we all
know and love, such as foods and traditions we have grown up with while maintaining the intrigue to try new things. Gabriella has made this experience wonderful for us and we have had the pleasure of also enjoying Hungarian foods and insight into the culture she grew up in.
Gabriella works towards improving her knowledge of American and world culture as well as
bettering her academic knowledge. This has driven her to ongoing learning and studying – I am thrilled that my children have a great role model in their good friend, and we look forward to the next six months.
