Darlene Turns One

A year ago, I told you about my impromptu midwifery debut, in which I cut the cord and delivered the placenta for our neighbor Sonia who didn’t make it to the hospital in time to give birth, then provided postpartum care, together with Stephanie, to her and her beautiful newborn daughter.  It was a marvelous story, and it didn’t end there.  Here’s the next installment!

Several days after the emergency birth, Sonia’s husband asked Stephanie and me to choose a name for their baby, and Stephanie deferred that honor to me.  I was delighted, because despite my lifelong dream of perpetual celibacy, I’d cherished for two decades the name I’d give to a baby girl should I ever have the opportunity.  It’s the name of Darlene Rose, the veteran overseas Christian worker whose testimony and personal counsel in 2004 left an indelible mark on my own foreign service to our King.

My conviction, though, is that parents should name their own children in exercise of their God-given authority in their lives.  During my first year in Africa, I discovered that families here often allow a respected friend to christen a newborn and thus become his permanent godparent.  I decided that should I ever receive such a request, I’d respond by giving the parents a list of suggested names for their baby, leaving the final choice with them.

Guided by my previous decisions, I wrote three names on a slip of paper, with “Darlene” first and “Rosa” second.  In our culture, only the first name is a personal choice; the father’s first name becomes the middle name of all his children, who assume his surname as well.  For that reason, I couldn’t give both names to the same person, as I had imagined two decades ago in America.

Stephanie and I visited our neighbors about a week after their baby’s birth, bringing gifts of newborn clothing.  I gave Sonia my list of suggested names, indicating no preference among them but silently praying that they’d choose the first.  How excited I felt two weeks later to hear that she and her husband had indeed decided to call their newest daughter Darlene!

Darlene’s siblings are frequently at our home, and within a few months they were toting around their baby sister.  I came to enjoy holding my goddaughter for a few moments on my way from the garage into the house after work in the evenings.  But as she grew more alert to the fact that my skin is a different color than other people’s, she took to crying in my arms, so it became my challenge to see how long I could distract her before she demanded to be returned to a dark-skinned individual.

Last Thursday was Darlene’s first birthday!  With $70 I provided, Stephanie and the children prepared a feast of rice with vegetables, beans, fried chicken, beef stew, fried potatoes, and salad.  She decorated our living room in pink and white to match the lovely little cake she prepared, sporting Darlene’s newborn photo.

Darlene’s entire family came over for the celebration, as well as the neighbors in the house next to theirs.  Boniface shared a devotional message.  Everyone clapped and sang while her parents, Darlene, and I cut her cake, though the little birthday girl unfortunately refused to taste it!  Then we all heaped our plates with food and relished our meal.

After we ate, many spoke about Darlene.  Stephanie recounted our experience of attending her birth.  I revealed that her name means “beloved” and expressed my desire for her to know the eternal love of God through faith in His Son Jesus Christ who gave His life to forgive our sins.  With that hope, I gave her father a Bible and charged him to read it daily to his family, leading them in God’s ways.  For his part, Darlene’s dad marveled over the miracle of his daughter’s birth and commented that for her sake he might have to start attending church.  Time will tell how serious he is, but would you join us in praying for his and his family’s salvation?

Pray also for wisdom for me as Darlene’s godmother, that I would balance cultural expectations of a prominent role in the child’s upbringing with Biblical principles of parental responsibility for their own children.  Pray that Darlene would trust in Christ from an early age and love the Lord with all her heart.  And praise God with me for the joy of a precious little goddaughter, available for me to hold whenever I want, right next door to my house!