Waiting for the Call: From Preacher’s Daughter to Lesbian Mom

Growing up, Jacqueline Taylor was the ideal preacher’s daughter. In the conservative communities of Pennsylvania and Kentucky where she lived, Taylor never questioned the solid pillars of the faith that informed her and her family’s entire life. As she matures, however, Taylor’s independent spirit and restless intellect begin to unravel the rigid fabric of belief that enfolds her world. Hoping to escape the watchful eyes of her parents and her church, Taylor leaves for college and almost immediately marries. After that relationship fails - much to her parents’ disappointment - she finds herself married again. Her world is further shaken when her mother (normally a typically proper and straight-laced Baptist preacher’s wife) experiences a wildly manic episode that shocks the church community and the family’s very foundations. Despite the widening gap between Taylor and her parents, she takes on the role of caregiver to her mother. When Taylor finally realizes she is lesbian, she breaks with every tradition she has ever known and embarks on a new life, finding love with another woman and eventually adopting two Peruvian infants, Grace and Lucy. Through these experiences Taylor discovers not only a way to love and be in the world that allows her at last to hear her call, but an unexpected and deeply meaningful path to renewed communication and reconnection to her parents and community.
Waiting for the Call
is the story of one woman’s discovery of herself and of the faith she feared may have fled in the hour of her greatest need. At times funny, uplifting, sad, and profoundly stirring, but always emotionally honest and courageous,
Waiting for the Call
reminds us that we can remain true to ourselves without abandoning our principles.