I was raised in Shawnee, Kansas. I have two sisters and one brother. We attended public schools, and our Catholic faith was taught to us by our parents. Through their humble actions, we were taught to thank God for the joyful times and for the challenges placed on our path. We were shown the dignity of each human being. I did not meet a religious sister until I went to college. I was very involved in the Catholic Center at KSU and I was impressed by this woman that seemed to be so happy, and balanced. I was too scared to mention anything to her or even ask her questions about being a sister.

After graduation, I was living the life of freedom, money and travel. After a few years I was bored with that and wondered if there was more to life then what I had experienced. I started telling my friends that I was most at peace when I was helping others, i.e. taking Eucharist to the homebound. I was introduced to a Spiritual Director that helped me to ask some deeper questions like, "How did I see myself spending my life? What brought me the most happiness?" Some of the best advice she gave me was to spend time with sisters if I felt I may have a call to the consecrated religious life. The problem was that I did not know any. So I looked through the area bulletins for the "Come and See" weekends that I had seen advertised. These are weekends where communities invite women in to spend time with them in prayer, ministry and just having fun. Over about a year period I visited about 10 communities and asked a lot of questions. What was amazing is that they were all alike in some ways and yet different in some ways. They all wanted to serve God, but they had different populations they focused on and different ways of going about their work.

My spiritual director helped me realize that I could not approach this like a research project. I had to get out of my head. I tried to spend more time pondering in my heart how it felt to be with these different groups of women. Each place I visited I just asked God for the grace to help me experience the moments there and not make any rushed decisions.

They were all gracious hostesses and I never felt pressure to join their community or even to choose the path of consecrated life. They all said that God is calling me to be in a lifestyle where I can serve, and where I can find the greatest amount of peace and happiness.

Needless to say, when I met the Sisters of Charity something felt really right. I had visited them on more then one occasion. I went to their masses, prayed with them and celebrated with them when a new sister took her vows. WOW, this was a group of alive, loving women and they were all different. No cookie cutters here. They were from all over the country; they had come from large and small families, and worked in a tremendous variety of settings.

Spending time with them felt so natural and after further discernment I knew that if I was being called to consecrated life, that this was the group I was willing to take a chance with. That was 12 years ago, and I still find this group of women, "my sisters" an alive and diverse group of women, with Christ at the center of their lives.

I think religious life requires a daily "Yes" commitment. As in each lifestyle that you choose, or that chooses you, it requires sacrifice. For me, the gifts of being part of a religious community far outweigh the costs. I am pursuing an intentional life and am held accountable to that, surrounded by women of faith that are making a difference in this world.