27 Mar HOW HAPPY WE ARE!/SPAIN
Since Wednesday, February 24th, the community of San Sebastian: the 31 Handmaid Sisters, together with the young Mar [1] who is a nice Honduran, and the charming Ana, Moroccan, with her 11-year-old son Adou; we had the great joy of receiving Amalia (a native of Ghana) among us, with her twins Bonté and Julie who were not yet two years old.
We had become an international community! Ghana, Morocco, Honduras, Spain! It is great to be able to open the doors and welcome these people who allow us to accompany them, always with the follow-up of Caritas, while they are in our land.
We are happy to share a home and life with them. It is very satisfying to see how they are positioning themselves, collaborating in the community, learning Spanish and -oriented by Caritas-, preparing and looking for a job that allows them to become independent as soon as possible.
They are very brave women. In this case, the glances of the little ones, their laughs, scares and cries, always under the smiling and peaceful protection of their mother, amuse and rejuvenate us.
On the 13th we celebrated at lunch, the 92nd birthday of a Sister and the two years of Bonté and Julie…! It was a very complete, friendly and family party, there were many gifts, songs and cakes with candles that they had to blow out. The twins’ astonishment, the applauses and laughter abounded, of course on their faces, but also on ours.
They already feel “at home”, you have to see them go out, at 8.30 with their satisfied mother, to the nursery, in the stroller they have been provided, saying agur as they move their hands smiling.
On Sundays the mother, a Catholic, dresses them up and attends the Eucharist in which “the little angels”, from behind, make their voices heard, thus making the real world present in our serious assembly.
I tell you all this, because we are happy, we want to share it and above all I believe that Jesus is very happy with these “senior” Handmaids.
Mª Ángeles Gutiérrez del Río, ACI
[1] All names are fictitious
