Our Quest for an Au Pair...

At the end of last week, Charm City Daddy and I started the application process for an au pair for Charm City Baby.

Somehow over a year ago, CCD found out about this company and signed us up to start recieving information. After a few mailers a local coordinator from Cultural Care contacted us to begin starting the application process, that's when I had to inform the company that my darling husband had contacted them prior to us even concieving child! ha! They found this very amusing.

So anyway, this week I contacted the same local coordinator to let her know that we're ready to begin the application process---and what an involved and lengthy application process it is.

In fact the application/screening process is not very different from when my family hosted an exchange student from Germany when I was in high school. Applications, background checks, interviews, but all very much worth it--and I am still in touch with our exchange student today!

Now CCD and I are simply looking for a responsible caretaker that can also expose CCB to another culture or language--hopefully one that we know too like Russian (CCD) or Spanish (me)--or can learn.

After hearing our friends' daycare stories about pre-potty trained costs, backup plan when your baby is sick, pick-up times, keeping baby on schedule, etc, I know we are making the right decision for us.

We will see how this year goes, and if an AP turns out to be a good fit for our family and lifestyle, we plan to build a AP studio apt just above our freestanding garage.

If the application process continues to progress smoothly over the next couple of months-we'll pick up our new au pair on August 14th! Wish us luck!