I am writing to express my unending gratitude and appreciation for how our Au Pair, Melany, has changed our life and I don’t say this lightly. I mean, she has literally changed our life. Let me tell you why.
Our daughter is adopted and comes out of a not just a broken home, but the broken foster care system. Our family has literally been on the roller coaster ride of our lives. Over the past 3 years, we’ve been challenged with redefining this child’s life, finding the right resources to help her heal, balancing our very demanding careers and finding the perfect fit for our child’s emotional needs has been a stretch to say the least.
And then… we found Melany! From the get-go (her video) we were instantly drawn to her! The emphasis she put on how fiercely she loves her family was a key piece to why we were laser-focused on her. We know that love heals what is broken!
That, and we could tell that she has an incredible work ethic and maturity, was consistent in how she approached caring for a child and exuded confidence, confidence that we just hadn’t had in other caretakers of our daughter.
Once we interviewed her, it became evident that she was the one. Her confidence in speaking with us via skype was so on point. I was blown away with meeting a young woman who was articulate, clearly had a kind, loving demeanor and was not afraid to ask questions. We couldn’t wait for her to arrive!
When we met her at the airport and we all hugged for the first time, I felt that she was the missing piece to our family. From day 1, she’s settled in and it truly feels like she’s always been here. She took digging into our family success workbook very seriously, asked a lot of clarifying questions and immediately started taking incredible care of our daughter. From making sure she has the perfect hair for school, delicious breakfast, to having fun after homework by doing crafts, painting nails or doing more hairstyles, these two really are like sisters and it’s so awesome to watch!
What has been key for us and truly life-changing is her calm and consistent approach. With our daughter’s emotional needs, consistency, structure, patience, the right level of being held accountable, and trust have been huge for overcoming some of the trauma she suffered prior to her adoption. We exude these in our family, but to have found Melany who exudes them so
naturally as well, is literally like answered prayers! We don’t have to reinforce the importance of these things; she just gets it and executes so naturally, it’s like a dream come true!
Since she moved into our home, I don’t spend my days worrying about my daughter.
What seemed like roller-coaster behavior due to some of the inconsistencies from other caretakers (local nannies), has completely leveled out and we’ve gone from some chaotic moments, more than we’d have liked, to 100% structure and our foundation is rock solid!
The other thing that we really appreciate about Melany is that she is such a solid communicator. When she isn’t sure about our daughter’s behavior or really anything, she has no problem coming to one of us for clarity. She is very committed to furthering her education, is focused on school, church, making new friends, maintaining her friendships from Colombia, and spends a lot of time with us. For us, it’s been incredible to learn about her life prior to living here, more about her family and I love that she shares them with us – we speak with them via skype regularly.
I admit that going into this I was so nervous. We had no context for how this would shake out and having a child with special needs adds another layer of complexity that is hard to describe.
However, it’s very clear that the universe has provided exactly what we needed for our daughter and we’ve gained not just an Au Pair, but a family member who we will cherish forever. I wish every family could experience what we have in our relationship with Melany, she is truly a Godsend.
With all of this, I hope you will strongly consider her for Au Pair of the year. I cannot think of anyone more deserving than her!
