On this date...July 11th

On this date, July 11, 2007 I had my first nanny interview. I had paid the agency for the list of names and had been excited to see dozens of options. I was looking for someone who had worked with children with special needs and it seemed like several on the list fit this criteria. Then I started making calls and was quickly diappointed. My response rate was very low. Out of about 15 calls, I managed to set up 3 interviews. My first one was a girl I'll call "shy girl". Shy Girl was really sweet, very quiet and had very limited experience. She didn't have children of her own, which was fine, but her only childcare experience was working with blind children in Peru. No kidding. And she also had a very strict religion that only allowed her to work certain hours, and she made it clear that her husband and her church came before anything else. I closed the interview, realizing maybe this was going to be harder than I thought. Interview #2: Oh, I could write a book on this one. I'll call her Bold Girl. She was a middle-aged Mom from Peru who was currently stocking shelves at Target. She had tons of childcare experience. She had worked as a nanny in Florida and her family spontaneously packed up and moved to Perryville. Go figure. She was very outgoing and "tell it like it is". So the interview progressed, I really liked her and then she starts talking money. She tells me that as a nanny in Florida, she had made $18 an hour. If my colon had been functioning, I'm sure I would have pooped my pants. She did say that since she was now working in Southeast Missouri, she completely understood that the economy here was different and she was willing to consider $15 an hour. I'm sure the look on my face was priceless, since she quickly closed the interview. I still see her now and then, working at Target, and I find it very ironic that I would have certainly paid her more than Target's wages but she really blew it.
Then I scheduled #3 for Friday the 13th. I'll call this one Young 'Un. The other 2 I had interviewed were close to my age. This girl was almost young enough to be my daughter. I was frustrated at this point and nearly cancelled it.
Young 'Un shows up and within a few minutes, I knew I liked her. She had more childcare experience than I did! I remember saying "wow" over and over as she told me about some of the kids she had worked with. I kept waiting for her to tell me it wouldn't work, she wasn't interested, or she was moving to Peru. But she didn't. So I asked her to come back the next week and offered her the job. Thus began a new chapter in our lives. Welcome to our world, Kasey.
It is no exaggeration to say that our lives would be completely different if Kasey had not walked through our door. She has been with us during the most difficult year of our lives. I can still remember calling her a week before she was scheduled to start and telling her I had just been diagnosed with cancer and could she hold off just 3weeks. I was still in shock myself. Kasey has held my hand when I cried from chemo, cleaned my house when I was too weak to get up (well, she also cleans my house when I'm too lazy...lol), took me to chemo, worked extra hours, held Emily when the fear of losing Mommy was so great. She has persevered during some of Emily's toughest days and she never gave up nurturing her and loving her. And I know she really does love Emily and for that I am most grateful. It wasn't just a job for Kasey and Kasey wasn't just our employee. She is a part of our family. Thank you Kasey for all you have done for us. As your time with us comes to an end very soon, please keep us in your heart, as you will always be in ours. We love you.

Next episode: July 26th. The truth comes out but the poo won't