Thursday, June 19, 2014

Family Visit or How My Sister Got Me a Sister

I think I mentioned that I had family visiting earlier this month.  This was a rare and special event!

Can we get a good picture of everyone?

You may know that I have a sister who is a SOLT sister in Colorado.  But I also have another sister, who is also a sister, in Ghana.  I look a lot like my sister in Colorado, but not much like my sister in Ghana, because she's adopted. 

She was asked by her bishop in Ghana to found an order of teaching sisters, and she said yes, even knowing that it would cost her.  Her parents emphatically did not approve of her becoming a sister, to the extent that they disowned her.

To found a new order, the foundress has to go through formation in an established order, and the order that agreed to form her was SOLT, my other sister's order.  That's how my one sister met my other sister, and she introduced her to my parents, who then adopted her.  (Could you follow that?)  She calls them Mom and Dad, they (and we) call her Akufa, which means Beloved Joy.

Probably not.
For a few happy years, she was living near us, getting her Masters in Psychology, and then she was back in Ghana for a year, making preparations.  This month she returned to make her final vows in SOLT, and we got to see her for a little while on her family visit.  My parents drove down to pick her up, and we had some rare time together.

Now she is back in Ghana, receiving her first postulants, and going about the beautiful work she has been given.  I miss her already!  I suppose I won't see her again for a few years, at least.  But she is my sister, always in my heart, and we will meet, as we always have, in the Heart of Jesus!





3 comments:

Sue Elvis said...

Thank you, Wendy for sharing this story about your sister and your sister!

There are so many people who do not understand about vocations. It must have caused your sister so much pain when her parents disowned her. How wonderful she met your family who obviously love her.

May God bless her, and her work with the postulants.

Annabelle said...

Love! How wonderful to have yet another sister, we can never have enough! I have 4 of my own, with Julie in heaven already, but I have added a new sister here in Hawaii. Raphaela is from Cameroon, Africa, and she interchangeably calls my "sister" and "momma" and I love it. The African concept of "family" is so much different than ours and focuses us on the reality that we are all God's children and ONE family.

Also, Raphaela's sister is a nun in Cameroon and has been granted permission to found her own order also! Just 2 months ago she opened the doors to her first orphanage and at the end of 2 weeks already had 16 children (I think over 30 now). The vocations are strong in Africa! Keep Sister Miriam in your prayers and we will pray for your sister too!

Wendy said...

That's fantastic! My sister is Sr. Rejoice Mary. It's funny how the love of our Lord bridges cultures and distances, isn't it?

We have a friend (from Nigeria) who was telling us about the significance of the oldest sister. The first girl in the family is called the ...something like Ama, I think. The oldest sons and the oldest daughters are like secondary parents in the family, and that lasts their whole lives. When there is a problem, or a conundrum, all the Amas in the village get together to solve it (or the first sons, depending on the nature of the problem).

Thanks for the prayers, we will pray for you too!