February 25 - Called to Parenthood

God's phone, recovered from the Garden of Eden. Just kidding, of course, but you can buy this gadget at www.cellfoam.com.

By Magdalena I. García

Today’s is my husband A.’s birthday, and it’s an important day for our family. But today also marks another anniversary. On this day ten years ago we got a phone call from Villa Hope Adoption Agency, in Birmingham, Alabama, letting us know that they had a child for us. He was a boy, two and a half years old, in good health, and ready to be adopted. That was our introduction to our son M., who is now 12, and whom we adopted in Quito, Ecuador, in May of 2000.

Adoptive families are always waiting for a call. For a long while—in most cases about two years—you wait for calls about appointments, paperwork, visits from the social worker, house inspection, notices about training opportunities, and so on. But when your dossier is finished, you sit back and wait for another call, the most important one: the referral call, letting you know they have a child for you. I still remember the excitement of the evening we received the call. We were overwhelmed with emotion and could not wait to meet our son. This was the culmination of a long and complicated process, sort of like an elephant pregnancy, and the beginning of labor pains, because it’s the final push towards the goal.

But that isn’t the only important call that I have waited for in my life. In the Presbyterian system of government, when a minister is seeking a church position it is said that he or she is waiting for a call, since congregations choose their pastors instead of having them appointed by a higher church official or body. And, in a larger sense, we use the word call as a synonym of vocation, which is highly appropriate given the root of the word. A “vocation,” from the Latin vocare (a verb which means to call), is a term for an occupation to which a person is specially drawn or for which they are suited, trained or qualified.

I guess that it is also highly appropriate to think of parenthood as a call or a vocation. Parenthood is an occupation that should be undertaken by choice, and not by accident. And the ability to reproduce does not automatically qualify humans for responsible parenthood. Some days I would like to give God a call, and to ask that the blueprints for humans be revised, so that reproductive organs become optional, like a silicone implant acquired later in life. Or better yet, have reproductive organs grow only on people who have developed the physical, psychological, and emotional maturity to care for a young life. Does anyone have God’s cellular so I can call?