Five and a bit years ago when Sophie was due to be coming into the world, Di fancied the idea of having a live in helper for a few months to survive the sleep deprived days that come with a newborn. Enter Julie, the Walloon – a French speaking Belgian girl who lived in the South of France, seeking adventure in an English speaking country.
Julie was like an angel to us playing with Matthew, picking him up from school when Di was feeding or sleeping, keeping our washing under control and anything we asked her to do. She spent time each evening on Skype with her boyfriend, Laurent, and her family. One day she even asked if she could clean the windows!
We took her on lots of adventures, made possible with her help with coping with a newborn. We gave her a little taste of life in Sydney and it’s surrounds. Little did we realize that this would form a long term bond with Julie and her family.
Two years later, Julie’s sister, Helénè, wanted to improve her English so she came to stay for 6 months. She was also like an angel to us and having a longer stay with us became part of our extended family as well being very caring with Di’s mum and getting along well with our nieces and nephews who were around her age. She spent her 19th birthday with us. Helénè is a spectacular horse jumper and we found a place where she could ride in a dressage arena. She was very impressive at it. Helénè missed her horse terribly while she was with us but made the most of her time here anyway. For the last two months of her stay, her brother, Gauthier, came to stay as well. We went on a road trip with Chris’ sister and nephew, Megan and Alex. We drove up to Brisbane via Lightning Ridge, etc.
So after they left we have stayed in touch with the help of Facebook, skype, email and them sending us written letters (I’m slack at that).
Last July, Julie and her boyfriend Laurent, Skyped us to say they were getting married and would like it if we could be at their wedding.