Sarah Culberson was adopted two days after her first birthday to a family in Morgantown, W.Va.
Posted on 09/19/2006 1:02:31 PM PDT by freepatriot32
(Sept. 19) - Adopted two days after her first birthday, Sarah Culberson grew up the youngest daughter in a close-knit family from Morgantown, W.Va.
She was surrounded by love in her home, but always wondered about her roots. Searching to unlock the secrets of her past, at age 22, Culberson began searching for her birth parents.
She quickly learned that her mom had died a dozen years earlier from cancer.
Culberson was crushed. A few years later, a private investigator helped her locate her birth father, along with an unbelievable surprise. Culberson wasn't an average suburban girl -- she was a princess.
Her father, a ruling member of the Mende Tribe in Bumpe, Sierra Leone, was living in Africa. By birthright, Culberson was royalty. She could one day be known as paramount chief in a country she's never seen.
Talking with ABC's Robin Roberts on "Good Morning America," Culberson said it took a while to process the shock of discovering her biological dad.
"It took a couple of years to kind of deal with finding my father and having two dads," she said.
Her father invited her to Africa to meet her family.
The entire Bumpe community came out to welcome its princess -- a happy homecoming for the American girl who never knew that by searching for her birth parents, she'd find herself.
"They were amazing," Culberson said, remembering her first impression of the Bumpe. "There are about 200 [people] to 300 people there to welcome you in the ceremony, singing, dancing, and I was like, 'What did I do to deserve this?'"
While she found Sierra Leone beautiful and exciting, it was also heartbreaking. Culberson saw people suffering from the 11-year civil war. The school where her father worked as a headmaster was in desperate need of rebuilding. She wanted to help.
Now 30, Culberson's settled from the shock of meeting her father and learning about her family. She's started a nonprofit foundation for her father's community.
The Kposowa Foundation is dedicated to rebuilding the school buildings of Bumpe High School, which was destroyed during the civil war. She's also making a documentary about her trip. In December, Culberson will return to Sierra Leone with her adoptive father so that he can meet her biological dad, too.
She says her West Virginia family has stuck by her through her discovery.
"They're like angels. They said, 'You know we support you in whatever you want to do,'" Culberson said.
She encourages adoptees to try and find their biological parents, but she asserts, they should not go into a search expecting anything. "I had no expectations. I didn't even know if I'd get a phone call return."
Culberson's search returned a new life, and a new mission: the Kposowa Foundation. For her, being a princess means helping her people.
"The title princess means responsibility, and that's what I'm taking on," she said.
Learn more about Culberson's project at bumpenya.com.
Sept. 19, 2006
Sarah Culberson was adopted two days after her first birthday to a family in Morgantown, W.Va.
(Not me, of course.) :-)
Princess of poverty.
That she recognizes the responsibility with the title and is doing something about it speak volumes of her adoptive parents.
She has a great smile!
"Yay, I'm a princess!!!"
"Where?!"
"Awwww, Sh!t!!!"
Bumpe for later.
Gosh, and here I was thinking she was going to stage a triumphant return to Sierra Leone to take her rightful place at the throne and lead her people out of war and into peaceful prosperity. I guess sending a few charity bucks from afar is a good compromise.
</sarc>
Agreed on her smile, but that last pic shows her with "Sideshow Bob" hair.
Royalty does not exist in the USA.
"Her father, a ruling member of the Mende Tribe in Bumpe, Sierra Leone"
Princess? He he.
If she behaves she may someday be the "queen" of somebody's double wide trailer.
Give her a break. She grew up in West Virginia. Sierra Leone is a step up.
As happy as her biological father may be at finally meeting his daughter, I imagine if she'd been uneducated, adopted into a dirt poor, subsistence farming family in Eastern Europe or Souther Asia, the welcome would've been less enthusiastic.
From her biological family's viewpoint, and that of her tribe, she's more royal than the usual royal family because she's an American. Money speaks, and access to money speaks almost as loudly.
Glad to see that she's making an effort to try and do some good for them, and I hope she's smart enough to actually do some good with her efforts.
LOL.
Really, it's Africa.
How many heads did her father have to sever in order to become a "king"?
I agree. Neat people.
Cool story.
I agree; her adoptive parents must be wise and good people. This situation could be a godsend for her tribe, if she really does shoulder the responsibility and continue to work for them. (And raising money IS important; how is she supposed to fix their schools, infrastructure, etc. without it?) Good on her!
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