Ultimate Au Pair Nominee
Au Pair: Sarah Fernandez
Brazil
Host Family: The Momcilovics
Location: Illinois
This year has been a tough year for our family. Over the summer, we learned that our five year old daughter needed to undergo a Bone Marrow Transplant for an Immune Deficiency that she had been struggling with all of her life. While we were preparing for this major life event, we also struggled with the search for a new au pair because our current one had decided to go home to Germany.
We were so excited to welcome Sarah into our home in late August. By this time, half of the family was already in Minnesota undergoing the transplant procedures. We were to be apart for almost four months. Sarah came to us well aware of our situation and the struggles ahead. When Sarah arrived, she stepped in and filled the shoes of our past au pairs better than any other had in the past. Her warm smile, her positive energy, and her fantastic enthusiasm were a blessing through our difficult time. She helped me out by adjusting to my ever changing schedule, especially my late night requests to be picked up at the airport. She always was there when I needed her, which was fantastic since my husband was away in Minnesota.
Sarah had been slowly getting to know Nadia by sending her notes and occasionally talking with her on the phone when we called, but the two had yet to meet in person. By late October, Sarah had still not been up to Minneapolis to meet our daughter who had undergone the Bone Marrow Transplant. We had wanted to give Sarah the opportunity to meet Nadia and warm up to her before she was discharged from the hospital, so I bought her a plane ticket (twice) and Sarah traveled alone to Minneapolis to meet us and spent an entire week with our daughter at the Ronald McDonald House. Nadia was so excited to have Sarah visit and welcomed her into her life as if she had been a part of it all along.
Sarah has done a fantastic job watching out for Nadia while she was in Minneapolis and at home. The schedule requires her to take medications five times a day. In addition, she was required to take Nadia's temperature and keep her free from germs by watching everything she touched and making sure she wore her face mask everywhere. Sarah is always on time and never misses or forgets. In between, Sarah is trying to also manage our other two children and the school work they bring home everyday. Most importantly, Sarah manages to find a way to connect with each one of our children in their own special way. Nicole with the baking and make up, Nathan with his video games and Nadia with her dolls. Even when I am home, I find her entertaining and playing with them constantly.
She is our Ultimate Au Pair. We are so fortunate to have her in our home.
