Featured Au Pair: Maria Luz from Argentina

Luz is a joy to have in our home and lives. She has brought such great energy, enthusiasm and, reassurance at a time when things are so uncertain in our world. She has shared with us her culture and traditions - from making empanadas to sharing her love of futbol with our three year old that now chants "Vamos River" to cheer on her favorite soccer team.

Luz is up for any adventure which fits perfectly with our family and she helps us come up with activities and new traditions to try bring some magic during this time such as cutting down Christmas trees in the forest, homemade pizza Fridays, dressing up for our own little New Years party (just us - see photo) to name a few. She has also been enthusiastic about road trips to see new places, never complaining about sitting with two small children and looks at each new activity like an adventure. Luz even enthusiastically agreed to wear a giant gold star costume to go with our family astronaut/outer space Halloween theme (see photo). It took much longer with the travel restrictions to have Luz come here than we had planned but we are so glad that she did not give up because our girls adore her and we can't imagine life without her.

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This has obviously been a trying time for many families and we consider ourselves beyond lucky to have Luz as part of our family. She definitely deserves to be the ultimate au pair.

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Our original plan had been to have our oldest daughter in preschool and Luz would watch our youngest. However, when cases increased in our community and it no longer felt safe to send her to school, Luz did not hesitate in her willingness to watch both the girls. She let us know she wanted whatever was best for them.

Luz develops a daily list of activities for our oldest (who loves school and learning), sometimes prepping activities the night before on her own time. She has brought Spanish into the daily activities and our daughter loves telling everyone that she now speaks English AND Spanish. The highlights of my children's days are their long walks, picnic lunches and the new activity that Luz has for them each day.

We know that they are loved and so well taken care of and we could not ask for anything more.

The Alvarez Family, Sacramento, CA