Ms. Betty

Recently, Jin and I have been interviewing nannys to care for Bella when I return to work in December. We interviewed three potential candidates and have decided on one nanny, Ms. Betty. Betty is an experienced caretaker, having raised 6 of her own children. Her children range from 22 years old to elementary age. She comes from a closely knit family who immigrated to the U.S. from Thailand but her native tongue is Mien. The day of her interview she arrived 20 minutes early and from the moment she held Bella in her arms, I could tell that she was the nanny for us. Bella immediately warmed up to her, smiling and cooing. I think her smiles really melted Betty's heart - I could almost see her own maternal instincts kick in.
After that first interview, we decided to bring Betty in for a few days as a trial run. As expected, she arrived early again - this time, she arrived 30 minutes early and waited in the car before ringing the bell. We also noticed she took off her shoes and left them outside on our front doorstep before entering. I even offered to bring her shoes inside, but she insisted on leaving them. Perhaps this is some Thai custom or maybe it is an act of respect.
I left them alone throughout the trial period and appeared unannounced to see what was going on. Each time Betty was quietly holding Bella, rocking her gently. I even noticed that Bella barely made a whimper the entire day with Betty around. Man! She was doing such a great job, she was giving me a run for the money as mother!
All in all, from our interactions with Betty we could tell that she was humble, hard-working, and that she would care for Bella as if she were her own. The only thing left to resolve was her background checks and her proof of Hepatitis B immunization, something we requested because Bella is not going to be immunized until later. Her reference checks turned out to be nothing less than exceptional. Both families adored her and thought she was a great caretaker. We knew that she was a good thing and that we needed to move quickly to secure her services. By the second day she brought proof of her Hep B shots so we drafted a nanny contract that spelled out our needs which both parties happily signed.
Betty will actually be starting sooner than December. She will be working part-time, 3 days a week until December when she commences full-time work for us.
In the meantime, this leaves more time for me to play with Bella and perhaps begin taking some short-term medical writing jobs. My brain has been feeling like mush lately so hopfully work will stimulate those cranial juices once again.