last year of au pairing

do you remember when your grandma/granpa/teacher/father/mother would say "time flies, you better enjoy your youth it willl be gone before you know it"? I do. I hate and love this turth. I hate it because it makes me worry my life will be ruined before I know it, but it is a great reminder that tomorrow is not promised.

your life won't be ruined because you will get old. your action or the lack of them might. time does never stop but getting old means you live long, isn't that what most people want?

well of course in times like today I am getting more sentimental than usual and I am looking back at my au pair years (!!). I can see that in the beginning my blog was so busy. I just saw everything being new and fresh and exciting and wanted to share my first experiences with things. I wish I wrote more as the time went by. but that lack of posts means my life was so truely busy, full of great events and wonderful people. I think it is a little bit like falling in love. At first you want to tell everyone about it (or no one), but then it consumes you more and more and you have less and less time to spend with other people to talk about the one you love, beause all that time you are with them. this is what happened to my blogging. there were so many great thing to write about but I was way too busy enjoying them to share it with the world.


the first thing that comes to my mind was my time at the hospital. I loved volunteering there. there is something about health care community that just makes you feel so fulfilled: knowing you are literally surrounded by heros, people saving lifes on everyday basics, being the smallest part of the place that gives hope to many.

people need to be a part of something bigger than them. being the smallest part of the greatest plan is always better than being the biggest part of the least significant scheme.
and this is why being there made me feel like a part of family, even though I only knew names of few and had seen them once a week.


being so involved in church was another thing. Doing few Bible studies and being part of a wonderful community are always a blessing. I had so many opportunities to make a change we had a sleep out for homless teenagers with spectrum, when we actually spent a night outside in March (for people who have never been in Vermont in March is basically freezing your limbs off). that felt so terribly cold, even though I had about 5 layers of cloething and a sleeping back, but the worst part was when at 1 am it started snowing, and beacuse of the temperature we all slept with our heads inside the sleeping bags (no tents) after few hours the fabric protecting my face got wet and completely covered m face when I was asleep and I started to suffocate.
I always counted my bed as a double blessing, but that night just showed me how much a shelter really means and thanks to all my sponsors we gave hope to those teenagers and young adults for who nights like that are everyday life.

I loved seeing people's faces when we did a free carwash and how we had to explain them few times it means they actually get there car cleaned for free! same as during Burlington city marathon we had an outside worship service while hundreds of people just run by.

I think of the true community: of playing sports and games together. having dinners together just beacuse, eating wings and chocolate and pastry, drinkinking gallons of coffee and green tea. studying and praying. talking, texting, facebooking. having bonfires, camps, lunches and different get togethers. being one true family.


I also got to travel a lot. in my second year my mom and sister came over and we made our way trough the continent. we started in NYC which was beautiful and of course very busy. we did so much I don't know if it is possible to list all the things we did and have seen during 3 full days we had there. we took picture with wax Marilyn Monroe, took a cruise to see Statue of Liberty on the sunset background, we had a nice dinner in Little Italy and saw a million people blocking our way to the bull on Wallstreet, we went to MoMA and MET, Empire State Building and did the tour around Rockefeller Center. Then we came to Vermont for a week to rest before heading West to city of big things - Las Vegas. Why would anyone ever bother to go see any place if they can have it all in one spot in the middle of the desert? We also saw Grand Canyon, Palms Springs, Los Angeles. We met woderful people and it has been such an adventure! Driving in the middle of desert and not knowing where is the next gas station or how on Earth would we survive if our car broke down and in the end getting to famous Route 66 was just incredible.

My health problems for once brought a blessing which was to see my friends and family in Poland for Christmas. It was a quiet short trip for the distance travelled but long enough for me to get sick and miss my favorite part of celebration which is Polish traditional Christmas Eve with the most beautiful service in my familys Church that always looks just perfect with white and gold decor and 2 giant Christmas trees.

Now it is a time for a new chapter in my life. In twenty days I will no longer be an au pair. My hear is breaking thinking about it. Missing children so much. Missing their parents and grandparents. Missing our time together: holidays and regular days. Conversation around dinner table. All the things we shared. All those precious moments. Vacations and travels and seeing children grow. Going trough hard times and happy times.

But when I think of it all quote from Winnie the Pooh comes to my mind How lucky am I to have known someone who was so hard to say good bye to 


There is a lot good coming.