Au Pair of the Year Nominee:

Sandra - Spain

Meet the New Hip Spanish Mary Poppins~

In order to understand our profound admiration for Sandra, you need to understand a little bit about our family. Chris and I are both medical residents. We met in medical school and realized early that we had the shared love of outdoors, adventure and medicine. Before long, we were married.

For both of us, medicine was a second career. That makes us "untraditional,"older students. Given our ages, we decided to start our family the last year of medical school, before starting residency. This final part of medical school is usually a lighter load, and we figured this would allow one of us to spend the first 7 month home with our baby.

Before starting residency, we knew that the heavy work load as physicians would require us to have flexible child care. We also wanted to have a cultural exchange given our mutual love of travel. For us, the decision to look for an Au pair was an easy choice. Then residency began...

Nothing could prepare us for our first year as resident docs. It was 11 months of 70-80 hours a week. In order to get our daughter, Finnula, as much parent time as possible, Chris and I worked opposite shifts. There were weeks when we never even slept in the same bed together. It was pure survival. Finn was able to florish thanks to grandparents being close by, the help of our 1st au pair, and the stablitiy of home care. In these difficult times, Finnula was our bright light. When our first Au Pair finished her year, we decided to continue with another Au Pair as we very much enjoyed the cultural exchange.

Then came Sandra...

She walked into our lives and her bright red hair swept us all away. She and Finnula were crazy about each other from literally day one. In the most laid back way, she took charge of all situations and our confidence built quickly. She is more than just competent; Sandra has a true gift for reading a situation and adjusting to that moment.

She has incorporated into our community more than we have. For example, every night, she goes across the street to our local Cafe to socialize. This is a favorite spot for the elders of the community as well as a wide range of neighborhood characters. Our running joke is that Sandra is now the Geriatric Spanish teacher as she spends a good bit of time teaching spanish at the cafe.

Now, when we walk by, we are greeted by people we have never met. "Hey Docs, they say." We feel that through Sandra, we have become more a part of our community.

Sandra has also continued Finnula's Spanish education which was begun last year with our first Au Pair. She has extended this by bringing in several Spanish books as well as teaching her all the classic Spanish songs that she was raised with. It is so adorable to hear your daughter sing... "Veo Veo, Tal Vez..."

Sandra is also a wonderful roommate. She has taken over the walking our geriatric dog. She says that she enjoys her evening strolls, so why wouldn't she just take the dog along as well? She is also a wonderful cook. She will usually make us one of the common Spanish dishes every week. We have loved learning about the culinary tastes and smells of her region of Catalan!

These seemingly small chores help us immensely and illustrate Sandra'scharacter: She continually anticipates what needs to be done, and just goes ahead and does it, regardless of whether we asked her to or not. In fact, we have often found ourselves asking her NOT to help with some of the household chores, as we feel she does TOO much at times. We have many long days, but it seems that she always senses the hardest days and makes a little extra effort, whether that be cooking a meal, and doing a load of laudry just because.

If last year was about survival, this year has been about healing for our family. Sandra has been instrumental in helping this happen. Last year our Au Pair was a great baby sitter, this year our Au Pair is a remarkable human. She is our Hip Spanish version of Mary Poppins. Sandra is truly one the most thoughtful, kind, and proactive people we have been gifted to know.