Unfortunately, things haven't worked out with Julia as we had hoped. It's a mutual decision to end the match and she will be with us for another two weeks while both sides try to figure out what happens next. Should Julia not be able to find a host family that's a better fit within that timeframe, she will get sent back to Germany.
The process is time consuming and stressful, but we do have a few options. Our best case scenerio, is that we find another au pair that is also in rematch and can join our family at the end of the month when Julia leaves us (perk if we can find a German-speaker). Option 2 is that we find an out-of country German-speaker, and Pauline comes back to pinch hit for a few weeks during the interim. You may remember that Jana came to our rescue after Katharina left, while we waited out Pauline's arrival.
If we don't see any au pairs we like, we may go the nanny-route until this summer when there are more German au pairs to choose from (it's slim pickin's this time of year). Having a nanny would free up a bedroom, which we may really enjoy having back. We have already paid the agency fee (000s of dollars) for this year, so its unlikely that we will give up on an au pair entirely, as we'd be out all that money.
In the short-term, we may need to put all three kids in daycare until our permanent solution is worked out, but we are REALLY hoping to be able to avoid that hassle. The coordination of dropping off/picking up all three every day has me more stressed out than the expense at this point.
I'm disappointed that we have needed to rematch with 2 of 4 au pairs. The au pairs that have worked have been awesome, but are they worth it for the hassle when half of our matches don't work? Clearly, we aren't doing something right during the interview process. We will seriously need to consider if the hassle of interviewing and the risk of the match not working out are worth it down the road.
