First of all I want to thank you for the work you are doing. I had a great year and I can’t believe that there’s only 4 weeks left to go. That I could be with a christian family helped me a lot and I made a lot of christian friends. And i certainly will come back even if it’s just for a holiday.

Thank you very much,

God bless,

Lena

I want all my au pairs to be comfortable and enjoy their stay. They are not here just to work long hours but to only assist whilst I go work.

 We both talked and discussed many things. We have prayed together and it has been wonderful in the home. I thank the Lord that she came and opened up. She has become so strong and she said only the other day she has got closer to the Lord by being here in England.

I really thank the Lord for your agency that allows many young christians into Christian Families. I do and will allows hold Christian values in my home. It has been a blessing to speak to these young Christians about their walk with the Lord.

Nishita

I had a good time indeed. Living here with the family made it possible for me to concentrate on what I feel is important in my life. Although I have to admit that I still find the work with the children hard sometimes & I'm only sometimes fully satisfied with them, this is probably partly because of what I expect of them- & of me. So maybe it's more that I'm not always satisfied with me- how I handle them. I still have learned a lot- about children in general, about the 3 boys here in particular & about me, what my values are & where I want to spend time/energy/money on. I reckon that as an AuPair I am in an almost unique position of living together with a family, see how they live their life, for a period of time. I appreciated that. Also because of the hours that I worked ( only mornings & evenings) & the generousity/flexibility of my hostparents I had the chance to get involved in many different things.  Firstly and most important for me was the wonderful church in Reading- truly amazing, vibrant & Godfocused! I became part of one of their worship bands, was involved in a cell group (where I made lasting friendships with at least one of the people) & just met lots of Christians. Also the 24/7prayer-community of Reading contributed a lot to my spiritual growth... God has greater plans than we can imagine.

Apart from that I took part in a part-time course about needlecraft & learned about the history of the City of London which broadened my horizon, so to say. It did a lot of good to my English living here in the countryside- & not e.g. in London- because all the people I got to know did only speak English & so I had not other choice but to do so as well =). I took a riding lesson, went on a houseboat on the Thames in Oxford, walked 26 miles around Stonehenge, got to know 2 monks & ate an oyster for the first time in my life ;-).

In conclusion I can say that I am truly thankful for God leading me here & giving me this opportunity with everything that in included. Many thanks also to you as ChristianAuPair, because this only gave me the chance to do this AuPair, especially in a Christian family (which I found very important & enriching as well!).

With the best wishes,

Rebekka

I really enjoyed my time with the M.... family. They have three children. Elisabeth (13), Clare (11) and Jonathan (8). Jonathan the youngest needed the most help, his older sisters are old enough to organize themselves.

A typical week at the M...... family was:

Monday: get up at 7 am, 7.30 breakfast (haven’t had to prepare breakfast, cause my hostmum did it) 8 am walk to school with Jonathan. Then in the morning: clear the breakfast and then do the children’s washing (towels and bedsheets).

Pick Jonny up from school at 4pm. 5.30 take Jonny to his piano lessen. And prepare dinner. 6 pm pick Jonny up and have dinner.

Tuesday pretty much the same. Ironing. And language course from 12.30 to 14.30.

Wednesday did the shopping with the car. Did washing of the rest of children’s laundry.

Evening: Elisabeth to Judo, Clare to Netball

Thurday: did ironing and cleaning the play room. Had language course form 12.30 to 14.30.

Friday: didn’t have to do much. Just take children to school and pick them up in the afternoon.

The family is really nice. They didn’t take advantage of me. Sometimes I had Fridays off, when the mum didn’t have to work. I could use the car in my free time when it was available. It was really great. I learnt a lot through my au pair stay. I think I’ll really miss England. I really would decide again to do au pair. It was the right decision for me. I met lot’s of different people and also found some new friends. It was a great time and experience.

Thank you for finding this nice family for me, it was just the right family for me.

          Kind regards

               Brigitte

Just to let you know we had a delightful and very detailed reply from Rebekka last night. She has accepted our offer and I will formally invite her in an email today.
 
I know we have said this before, but the au pair experience has been brilliant for us as a family. Apart for the slight wobble with Erika when she became very homesick, we can honestly say we have found it a very enriching experience. The girls have made us explore parts of our country and parts of our faith where we haven't been before! We remain in regular contact and all three are booked in for visits during 2009. Anne has been amazing and probably has the deepest relationship with the kids, which is partly due to her relaxed personality and partly due to the kids now being able to accept and trust another person in their lives. Vanessa and I were thinking the other night that we hope this can continue. Rebekka is likely to be our last au pair as the kids are now at the stage where they want independence and are safe enough to walk to / from school.
 
Once again we would like to thank you for all the hard work you do in finding us these great au pairs.
 
    Kind regards
 
                 Andrew & Vanessa