Reclaiming Our Children: A Blog About Healing After Abortion

Surviving Sibling is a touching blog written by a sibling of an aborted baby.  From the post, Young Woman Struggles After Accidentally Finding Out About Aborted Older Sibling, a woman named Donna shares…

"It was 40 years ago to her, but it was barely over 40 hours ago for me. Soon into the conversation the tears came. I have known people who have died, but never a close family member or anything. This was the most intense loss I’ve ever felt. I felt like I had been robbed of the life I was supposed to have. But then I realized I wouldn’t have had a life with this sibling. This sibling would have completely altered the events of my mother’s life."

We have only begun to scratch the delicate surface of how abortion impacts siblings.  For the past five years, Lumina has hosted retreat days for siblings with the help of the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal. This retreat day is so helpful in bringing those feeling isolated and alone in their feelings.  Often having nowhere to go to talk about their feelings, the Lumina Sibling Retreat Day allows post abortive siblings to come together and share leading to a greater understanding of the many dynamics surrounding abortion and its impact on the entire family.

Here is what some of the siblings who have attended Lumina's retreats shared after their experince. 

"The Lumina Sibling Survivor Retreat was a turning point in my life. The day's gentle intent pace; Eucharistic focus, and intimate setting allowed time to stop and expand,encompassing both the pain and hope for the future."

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"It was so strange and deeply comforting to be in a place where the central spiritual wound of my life was acknowledged and soothed, not idolized but transformed through a call to accpetnance, forgiveness, healing, and celebration of my youngest sibling's brief life on earth and eternal life in heaven where he or she not interceded before the face of God for the healing of my whole family."

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"Now I know this wound I bear is becoming like Christ's wounds: welling up with God's love so that everyone – my mother, father, all my siblings, and the generations before and after us may be drawn to Him"

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"The Day of Prayer and Healing in March provided me with a whole day to just be with my brother in the Communion of Saints and to talk about him with others who understood my pain and cared.  The group was a nice mixture of men and women and something that helped me so much was the vulnerable tears the men shared over their pain and loss.  Being with the group I felt safe and secure.  Never before was I so struck thinking to myself, that this day retreat is a tangible sign that abortion is not a private matter between a woman and her doctor."

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"I would recommend this retreat to anyone who lost a sibling to abortion."

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We would love to be able to bring siblings like Donna to our sibling retreat day on March 8, 2014.  Would you consider sponsoring a sibling so that they may finding healing and peace from the aftermath of abortion?