Seat of Our Pants

Once upon a time I was a mother. No, I didn’t have my own kids. But for a year and a half I was a mother to two amazing girls. How might I have accomplished such a feat, you ask?

I was an au pair. It was a job I took sort of on a whim. I’d studied in Italy for a year and couldn’t get the country out of my head after returning to the States. So, I found the only job in Italy that I could secure over the internet at the time: au pairing.

The family I worked for lived in the Tuscan countryside. The job description included travel with them to amazing places like Switzerland and Sardenia. The travel was great but it was a tough job. It was my warm-up for motherhood; a chance to see just how tough and how amazing the journey can be.

I worked for them on and off for two years. It was Alessandra, the girl’s mother, who is responsible for my first backpacking trip through Southeast Asia. She spoke so well of Cambodia’s Angkor Wat that I flew there the week after my job was over. I met Martin – my travel buddy, amazing husband and co-writer of this blog – on the third day of that SE Asia trip.

It goes without saying that my decision to work as an au pair was a life-changing one.

Martin and I are just wrapping up our overdue visit with them. They’ve since moved to the English countryside, but their hospitality and generosity haven’t changed. Thank you Second Family for an amazing week. We miss you already.

P.S. Girls, I’m blown away by how beautiful and amazing you both are. You rock!

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