Charity d.
Charlotte, North Carolina, United States
About Charity d.
42 years old
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Flight attendant
We are a family of four with love for animals and adventure in our genes. I am a flight attendant of 15 years and my husband is an attorney who took the self employed route to keep our family flexible and able to travel. My husband and I are both in our mid-thirties. We have two children who travel with us (4 year old Charlie and 2 year old Max) who within two years of birth lived in Ecuador, traveled to Cuba, Europe and South America, all staying in host homes.
Why we house sit: I truly find satisfaction and happiness in serving and assisting others (hence the long and enjoyed career as a flight attendant!). We try to instill this focus and importance on giving our time and resources to others in our two young children and find that combining this focus with travel is an amazing way to teach them these values. Our family motto is that we "show up" - to drop our plans to help a friend or neighbor in need, to be there for a game or performance or event for family or friends, to make it a priority to take the long trip (with the kids) to see old friends and keep the relationship going and growing. We hope that helping others by house sitting and caring for their home and, often, pets, allows us to display these traits and priorities to our children. Of course, we all love animals and new places too, so that definitely helps!
My family has always had (small) farms with beloved animals and pets (cats, dogs, donkeys, horses). My husband grew up with a house full of pets as well – birds (African Greys, Macaws), cats and dogs all living together and loving it.
Our children are also animal lovers - dogs, cats, fish, birds and just about any other animal we can meet and love on. We also love the outdoors and like to be active (I am a runner), so we look forward to having the opportunity to walk dogs outdoors or play with any pets outside so they get some out-of-the-house time while their owners are away (of course, we are happy to have the pets indoors with us as well!).
With our flexible schedules and travel it just doesn’t allow for us to have pets at home (even though both children already beg for a cat or dog!), so when we travel, if we can spend time caring for and playing with animals and pets then the entire family is in travel heaven. Also, some time with pets really helps the kids not miss home, be excited about new places and is usually the thing they come home talking about the most.
We have done many home-stays with host fam
My travel companions
Andrew, Attorney, Spouse / Partner
Charlie, Child
Max, Child
Language(s) spoken
English
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Spanish
Compliments received
Community opinion
Ebbw Vale, United Kingdom - January 2019
Charity and her family took excellent care of our dog over the two weeks we were away at Christmas. They kept us updated every couple of days with photos and messages. Their two kids, Charlie and Max were wonderful with him, keeping him entertained and tired out. We came back to a lovely clean apartment and a very happy doggo. You guys are welcome back any time, thank you so much for taking such great care of our baby!
September 2018
It was wonderful to have Charity, Andrew and their two kids come and take care of our dogs and stay in our home. They are a lovely family. They were very easygoing, made friends with the neighbors, explored the neighborhood on bikes and make a fantastic quince soup! The dogs loved them. We were kept informed all the time how things were going and what the dogs were up to.
Malmedy, Belgium - August 2018
Charity et sa famille ont été des hôtes formidables! Nous avons retrouvé notre maison dans un état impeccable et nos deux chats en parfaite santé et bien soignés! Charity nous donnait très régulièrement des nouvelles avec des photos et savait nous rassurer. Elle a également pris soin de remplir notre frigo, de nous laisser un plat cuisiné pour notre retour (tout en étant attentive à nos régimes alimentaires) et de refaire le plein d'essence de la voiture. De plus, les échanges préalables ont été très précis et professionnels. Elle a systématiquement essayé de concilier au mieux les attentes des deux parties. En résumé, nous sommes très satisfaits de Charity et de sa famille et nous les recommandons à quiconque souhaite faire garder sa maison et ses animaux! Un tout grand merci à eux!