Selfie - Responsible

Her Inner Light - “Bringing joy because when people around me are happy, I’m happy too.  And I’m willing to do anything to keep spreading that joy."

Her message to women everywhere - “Be independent, take action, and be a doer."

The bowl starts empty, chipped at the rim.  Gigi chops, staccatos of garlic.  In one swift swipe, she palms the garlic from the cutting board to the bowl, which she infuses with drops of soy sauce and sesame oil.  She lays on a bed of noodles cooked adente.  She drenches the bowl with steaming broth then lifts its spirits with cilantro petals.  Efficiently yet without rush, she breathes life into the bowl.  No longer hollow, the bowl becomes a gift of nourishment.  

Gigi is on the floor, tumbling, laughing, and tickling two little boys.   Then one is climbing a tree, and the other is skipping across the garden.  Gigi is up.  Gigi is down.  Chasing, bolstering, catching, she is a human trampoline, and her laughter is her bounce.   

Gigi sways, paces, sings, whispers.  For over an hour, she sways, paces, sings, whispers.  Until the feverish toddler in her arms goes from tears to peaceful sleep, the strain of Gigi’s body transmuted into the easy inhales and exhales of the child she cares for as if her own.  

Not so long ago, Gigi herself was a little girl running around farm fields in Central China and learning to cook from her mother who she lost too young.  Since immigrating to the US in her late twenties, Gigi has been working with families, nurturing young children of different backgrounds, and feeding them and their families her delicious cooking.  She is the fairy caregiver that mothers dream for.