A Different Adoption Story

       A few months ago, I contacted another adoption agency in Seoul called Social Welfare Society (SWS). This is the agency that facilitated my adoption and those of my brothers in the 80's. We set up a tour Monday afternoon with the SW, Mrs K.  It was one of the rainiest days we were there, so we took a Subway to that part of town and spend a couple hours wandering around Coex Mall (crazy huge - puts American malls to shame!!) before our tour.

bookstore 

kids meal

aquarium display

      We arrived a little early and posed out front. Han Suh Hospital was listed in my adoption records as a place where I received care as an infant. It has now turned into a clinic where the babies receive care for well child visits, vaccinations or sick visits. They may transfer them to Severance Children's Hospital if they need more acute medical care.    

    She showed us the Babies Home where babies are cared for by both paid and volunteer staff until a foster family becomes available. They are often here from a few weeks old to 4-5months old, and there were approximately 25 babies in there that day. This is the same process that takes place at ESWS, the agency we are working with. It pulls at your heart strings to see these adorable, healthy little babies waiting for both a foster family and an adoptive family to love them. Can't we adopt more than one??? No... no BOGO specials....  Haha

   I asked Mrs. K if she had been able to contact my Foster Mother but the phone number they had on file was no longer connected. Most likely, she wasn't even alive anymore as she would be in her 90's by now. I didn't feel lead to make contact with my birth family yet. After spending time with Gideon's FM and hearing about her family, I saw how they embraced him as part of the family and loved him dearly. It made me want to know more about my FM, even more so than my birthmother. Perhaps someday that will become part of our story, but this was enough for now. 

Some of you have asked how it felt to be in Korea... 

As someone who was born in Seoul but always raised by/around Americans, it was kinda strange.... looking around seeing only Koreans & no Caucasians... 

Knowing that I physically blend in there, but don't really belong... 

Locals expecting me to speak Hangul & eat kimchi.... 

Wondering what my life would've been like had I been raised in Korea....

There wasn't any fear, doubt, or unrest in my heart though. 

I am filled with the peace of God; I know who I am. 

I am a daughter of the Most High King of Heaven,

created in the image of God, 

chosen and adopted,

set apart and dearly loved, 

hidden in Christ, 

"a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that (I) may declare the praises of him who called (me) out of darkness into his wonderful light." {I Peter 2:9}