A New Beginning

As of breakfast this morning, Booah completed her time as our maid and nanny. Although there were some frustrating moments, I think we will all miss Booah. She worked incredibly hard, was a good cook, and the girls really loved her.

Before she left, Booah asked if she could have a picture of the family, and we happily obliged. Before school this morning, I took pictures of the kids with Booah.

We interviewed six of seven people over the course of a few days. Some wanted too much money, others couldn't work the desired hours, while others just didn't have the skillset to do the job.

Right before dinner yesterday, a maid for a former neighbor of ours came to speak to me. I had seen her around our old neighborhood before. She spoke with Tim on the phone and she seemed like a good match. Apparently she was very unhappy at her current employer who had yelled at her and called her names over something that she cooked. The girls saw her and also recognized her. The only downside was that she could not start until March 6th. After talking with her, I thought that we would probably end up hiring her. We could certainly manage for a week without a maid. The biggest pain would have been doing the laundry, but it was manageable.

When Tim returned from work last night, she told me that she had spoken with another maid/nanny who was looking for work. She had worked for another former neighbor for many years, but had recently left their employment. I knew her enough to say hi or wave, but hadn't really spoken to her a whole lot. Tim had actually talked to her in the past and liked her.

Tim and I talked about it and decided to offer her the job. The kids already knew her, which would help with the transition. She can also speak English fairly well, which would make interacting with me a lot easier. The biggest downside was that she told Tim that she was not much of a cook. At her previous family, they had a food service deliver meals. There are a lot of ways around that limitation, as I don't mind cooking once a week, and we can order in once or twice a week. Another option is to buy some prepared meals for the week and freeze them. Its actually pretty affordable to do it that way here.

Our new maid starts tomorrow morning at 7:30 a.m., after the kids are off to school. There are going to be some growing pains as she learns our routines, how we like to do things, and where everything is located, but I am cautiously optimistic.