This is the first of a New Year's series I'll call Reflections. This is an adorable recent picture of my Jarrett and Paige. In the Fall of 2000, I was getting ready to graduate from UNT with a degree in Child Development and Family Studies. The following August, I would begin an intensive 9-month long discipleship program for women at our church. So I would be needing a job that had reasonable hours and was not too stressful. I had known Paige's Mom for awhile as my mother had kept their cousins. She was pregnant with her second, a boy due in October and asked if I would be their full-time Nanny beginning in December when I finished school. I accepted and to this day that was the best job offer I have ever had! I started when he was 8 weeks old and now he is 8 years old. I kept him Mon-Friday 8:30-5:00 for years. At two and a half years old, Jarrett was the ring bearer in my wedding and 6 year old Paige was a flower attendant. I have "quit" my job with them 3 times and yet I always seemed to be pulled back in for a few days a week in the summer, various school breaks, etc. I just can't leave them! I began my career as a caregiver 20 years ago! I was the go-to babysitter in the neighborhoods we lived in and even vacationed to Disney World, Sea World, and L.A. with a family whose kids were my heart (those children are now 20 and 23 years old!) I had various other families here and there and was always very loved by the children. In college, I took a position for a prominent family in the area. The day after they hired me, they found out their 7 year old son had a brain tumor. I stayed with that family and was his primary caregiver through his chemo, losing his walking ability and transitioning to a wheel chair, and finally being bedridden. I spent hours at his bedside when he lost the desire to talk weeks before he went to be with the Lord. I was one of the few who knew just what he needed by the look in his crystal blue eyes. He had the ability to touch my soul in a way that is indescribable. With my hair in a pony tail, and my college sweatshirts- he would tell me I was beautiful. He would ask that I specifically be the one to bathe him or bring his chocolate milk. I even learned how to flush his morphine port. I still remember how it felt to have his "good" arm wrapped around my neck when he would kiss me goodbye every night when it was time for me to go. His favorite books were Kat Kong and Dogzilla. I told him I would see him in Heaven someday, that is wasn't fair he had to go so soon. He had a younger sister, and I worried that she was pushed aside because he took up so much of my energy. I stayed with the family an additional 6 months after Tom died, even though their parents were a literal nightmare to work for, because I didn't want Sarah to lose her nanny and brother at the same time. I recently found her on Facebook and connected with her. She is a junior in high school and said I was always her favorite nanny. She had over a dozen nannies in her childhood.
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I LOVED being a nanny. I wasn't the type that chatted on the phone while the kids entertained themselves. I knew I wasn't getting paid to run my own agenda. It was trying at times, yes. And I was ready to have my own children, for sure! But there is something exciting about arriving at a house and knowing precious little ones would be jumping up and down in anticipation of your arrival, and sometimes cry when you left. Watching them grow, mature, and do things for you their parents could never get them to do...like clean their rooms, take their medicine, and eat vegetables! Oh the countless Barbies I dressed and dinosaur names I learned. I cannot imagine the number of children's books I've read and Disney movies I've watched. Jarrett gave me the nickname "Ria" when he was around 2 years old. That has stuck to this day. In my wedding video you can hear a little voice as I'm coming down the aisle "There's Ria!!" At his kindergarten graduation I had a flash forward moment of him graduating from highschool and saying in his post-puberty deep voice, "Thanks for coming, Ria."
I'm not officially a nanny anymore. My kids have grown. But I still keep up with Paige's pre-teen drama, as I remember how hard life can be in adolescence. And I will sit and go through 75 Pokemon cards with Jarrett learning their powers and their opponents. I care about his enormous key chain collection, and Paige's overuse of her cell phone! They are my kids. Paige recently wrote a little "shout-out" to me on her BLOG. It brings tears to my eyes to know that my presence in her life has made such a difference. I am a mother of two, but I know whether paid or not, I will always be their nanny.
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