Thankful ~ a sitter

If you ask Little Miss who her babysitter is, she will tell you ... except that delightful young lady has not been a regular sitter for us for a number of years. ;)  She was a mature high schooler (and oldest child), who then lived at home while attending community college, and later moved to an apartment in the city for her last two years of college, and is now in grad school! 

But God!  After a year of pandemic stress, God introduced us to a sitter that I noticed was working for two of the families at LM's preschool last year.  Some days she would pick up a little boy from one family. Other days she would pick up a little girl from another family.  So I asked for her contact info.  

And then some Wednesday evenings she started picking up LM from the Walmart parking lot in the city, after our pediatric therapy sessions and before I took LG to Awana.  (LM needs her bed!)

While she still works for the other two families, those are daytime hours while the Mom is at work.  I need her in the evenings & weekends, so it's a win-win! 

Twice a month, LG goes to Trail Life, and the sitter comes to put LM to bed.  She's lined up to watch the children while we go to Madrigals!  And on small group night when it doesn't work for them to go to the farm.  And the missions conference ladies' dessert when Jim will be doing fieldwork.  And on and on it goes.  (Probably during the school's annual Family Reading Night, which starts after LM's 6.30 pm bedtime.)

Another mature young lady and oldest child, she has finished community college and is waiting for her spot to open up in nursing school.  We will miss this very responsible sitter when she starts nursing school!  

I've learned over the years that I don't just want a sitter, I want someone who will lead my children.  Especially if she's here for a couple hours midday (as opposed to bedtime), I leave activities: make chocolate chip cookies, do this art project, play one of these games, read x books, etc. 

My dream is to have a sitter (or ideally more than one on my list) who is studying occupational therapy or speech therapy or early childhood development and can utilize her skills while spending time with our children.  I can dream!  And pray!!