As I mentioned a couple of weeks ago, our next Au Pair, Michelle, will be arriving on July 20th.  She’s from Kolding, Denmark – not terribly far from Malin, and also very close to where some of Katie’s ancestors come from in Southern Denmark.  We’ve Skyped with her several time, trying to help the boys with the transition, and are very excited about her arrival.  Her picture is now on the refrigerator, along with those previous Au Pairs who have been memorialized.

We keep asking the boys what they want Michelle to do with them, and where they want her to take them.  They’ve been pretty consistent on playing with cars and trains and legos, and having her take them to the Zoo and St. Edward’s park.  My guess is they’ll think of a few more things to play with and places to go once she arrives, but that’s probably enough to keep her busy for the first couple of days anyway.

When we were matching, it took a lot longer than it has for us previously.  We also had our first ever real rejection, which hurt a lot more than we were expecting.  I mean, we’ve had the first-brush rejections with each matching – the “I want to live in California / Florida / East Coast”, or “I only want to watch girls”, or “I’m scared of redheads” – but that always happens right away, prior to us feeling confident enough to make the offer.  On the other hand, one very important thing we’ve learned about hosting au pairs is that if they aren’t happy and excited to be a part of our family, then it just isn’t going to work out well for anyone involved.  We also had a couple of girls that we really liked and thought would be very good Au Pairs – but talking with them on the phone or on Skype was very difficult and hard to get a conversation started, so we found that we just didn’t know if we were going to be able to connect with them.  Being able to connect and build a relationship is very much what we’re looking for in an Au Pair, so we just weren’t willing to take the risk.

It doesn’t really matter how long it took, though, because once we saw Michelle’s profile, and talked to her on the phone and over Skype, we were very relieved and completely confident that she was the right choice to come and live with us, share in our lives, and help us keep our boys from killing themselves.  Afterall, she’s from Denmark, which is where Legos are made – that has to be a sign, right?

Welcome Michelle – we can’t wait to meet you!

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