Room For One More At The Table Of Life
By Sr. Jazmin Peralta ssc
The new family life poster that came recently was very good and meaningful. It is really captured what every little helpless human being inside the womb of all expectant mothers would wish to say: “Mom, I too want a birthday.” I could imagine how that tiny, little creature would hope to see the light of day and celebrate a birthday.
Stressful But Exciting Work
My work with unwed mothers has been a very stressful but exiting experience. Stressful because I am not a trained nurse and I have no idea abut child care, but exciting because I experience the same anxiety and expectation these expectant mothers do as I journey with them. Indeed it is still a blessing and assort of miracle that in today’s Korea, where abortion is convenient and common, there are still many who would choose to give these unplanned babies their birthdays.
Sparing One Life
I remember an incident when I have to travel to Kwangju to collect a girl who was seven moths pregnant. She was admitted by her mother to a hospital for an abortion so she could graduate for high school in the next two weeks. The nurses in the hospital, who were Catholics, sere so worried that hey told a Korean Sister, who visits the hospital weekly, about it. When the Sister heard about it she got in touch with us immediately. I left, boarded a bus and wondered whether the girl would still be there when I got o Kwangju. I usually get sick when I travel by bus but that morning I was so preoccupied I didn’t get sick. I wanted to go there as fast as I could because she was scheduled to have the abortion that very morning. Along my way, I prayed to God that at least one more life would be spared and one more child would have the joy of being welcomed by the beauty of life.
In Due Season
The more I learn abut the function of the human body and how the tiny cell develops into a human being, the more I am in awe at the mystery and richness of life. When I imagine an aborted baby I see a picture of a premature fruit that has been forcefully plucked from the stem. So the baby, likewise, is forcefully plucked from the uterus. The baby should be delivered in due season life a ripe fruit that will just naturally fall from the stem.
I arrived on time. I was able to see and talk with the girl in Kwangju and after a few months she gave birth to a healthy baby boy. She had the baby adopted. But she was the only girl who wanted to see her baby, most mothers don’t even look at their babies before giving it away for adoption.
The Gift of Life
I still do believe in miracles. So even if a lot of women here in Korea go for adoption. I know that there are still many others who understand the wonders of God’s call to life, enter a difficult but rewarding path of family planning and who avoid the spiritual and physical trauma of abortion. As a result, many babies can bask in the beautiful mystery of life-the most precious girt of God to us.