Our Helper

One of the benefits of living overseas, especially in developing countries, is that you can afford to have help around the house.  Well, in the past few years, China is getting much more expensive than it was, but it is still much cheaper than in America.  And it is just harder to get anything done here, so it is so nice to have someone come everyday to help out.  We found our "Ayi" from friends of ours who were leaving.  They loved their Ayi and highly recommended her.  She used to be a cook, so that was a huge plus.  She is really great.  She comes 5 days a week from 8-4.  It is so nice.  She used to cook 2 times a week, her Chinese food. It is so good, but after a few months, I had enough Chinese food.  they just use too much oil.  So I am trying to teach her how to cook the things that I like to cook the kids.  She is really liking learning new things.  So I have her cook 5 times a week now and sometimes she will cook Chines and sometimes my stuff.  We do my stuff together, I am showing her how to do it.  It is just nice to have someone to talk to and plan meals with  in the morning instead of trying to figure out what to feed these hungry children at 5pm.  That is never a good time to start cooking.  I used to always do that, but now she asks everyday what we want to cook and we figure something out.  It is really nice.  And mine you, She doesn't speak any English, so you can imagine how difficult it can be, but we are getting along really well.  I am learning Chinese and we do plenty of hand signals.  I think things are going really well.  I was really worried about it at first because the kids were having such a hard time.  She is so sweet, but because she didn't speak any English they were not getting used to her.  Everyday when she would come in Sawyer would scream and say he wanted Zhang Ayi to go home.  Why does she come everyday???  It was really difficult.  I felt so bad for her and so bad for Sawyer, he just has such a hard time adjusting to things.  It took about 3 months.  As soon as Lincoln started school and Izzy started going a few days in the morning.  Sawyer's hadn't started yet, so he had some alone time with me and Mabel and our Ayi.  Things took a wonderful change.  He started playing with her and was really happy.  He is such a sensitive boy and so emotional.   I am so glad we kept our Ayi because things are great now.  It is just so nice to be able to go swimming or go to the park with the kids while Mabel is sleeping and at the same time come home to a clean house.  We are very very lucky.