Good morning, beautiful day!

It really brightens my morning when I wake up to an email from B in Thailand and it starts out by saying "good morning, beautiful day"!

Package of Goodies

We sent a package to B and her family last week and just heard that she received it. It was full of Minnesota food, American candy, a book on the Twin Cities and a t-shirt with a Minnesota appliqué on the front. Her brother and sisters loved the candy and said it was better than candy from Thailand. Cute photo of her siblings and the candy.

Visa

B traveled to Bangkok and had an interview for her Visa. I just got word from her that the the interview went well and she was approved for a Visa! That is a big relief, for us and I'm sure for her as well. Only a little over a month and she'll leave for America!

First aid training

B traveled to Bangkok to complete some first aid training with the au pair school there. It is about an 11 hour bus ride from her province of Nong Khai to Bangkok (about 700 km). She met another au pair there that she will see again when they return to Bangkok for their Visa interviews in about a week. I believe they will be flying together as well when they come to America. We are happy she won't be alone since this will be her first time out of Thailand.

We have a winner!

Well, we finally were able to arrange for a video chat with B. We just got done with that and both T and I agree that she's the one. She was very personable and seemed to have a sense of humor (which is important as we all do in our family) and was very friendly. Her sister was with her so we got to see her and say hello (Sawatdee) which was nice. Now we have a couple months to get to know each other more through email and photos we'll exchange. We are very excited and know the time will go by quickly.

Technical difficulties

So, we were finally able to find time to chat with the two girls from Thailand. We skyped with P and then attempted to video chat with B but she was having internet connection difficulties. So we just instant messaged her for awhile instead. She plans to drive to an internet cafe so we can video chat with her soon. It's a prerequisite that we speak to the girls either on the phone or via video chat before continuing the process. So far we like both girls but we won't make up our mind until we can do the 2nd video chat (there is just something so telling in speaking with someone face-to-face) and exchange a few more emails with the girls.

Next Steps

The home visit went well. Now we need to take the next steps even though we are still on the fence as to what to do. I have a few appointments set up next week at a daycare and Montessori and think I'll get a better feel for things after that. But we want to keep the application process going so I put T in charge of writing our host letter. Basically this tells about our family, kids, pets, lifestyle, city we live in, work schedule, hobbies, hopes for the au pair, etc. While he does that, I will find some photos we can add to the application. These are things our prospective au pairs will be able to view to see if they are interested in us as a family.

We also asked for a few more girls to be added to our account to review. We are interested in South America and Thailand. The girls tend to be older and hopefully a little more mature as well as very family orientated which we like. We want to review several applications before deciding who to contact. Since there will be infant care involved, the au pairs must have 200 hours of prior infant care complete so that is reassuring. Also, we are hoping for someone who is comfortable in the water, if not a strong swimmer as we spend a lot of time at the lake and pool in the summer. They also need to be comfortable with big dogs as we have one large lovable Weimaraner!

Out of the four girls we considered, there are two we are interested in. They are both from Thailand. Now we need to get in touch with them - first via email. They are 12 hours ahead of us so we need to schedule a video chat and that could get a little tricky, trying to work around ours and the baby's schedule and their schedule. We'll keep you posted.