Wednesday, January 5, 2011

5 years into a few pages.





Growing up I had 2 days, my birthday and my "Airplane Day". My Airplane Day is in May, and it is the day that I arrived at the DTW airport to meet my new mom and set foot on American soil. When I was young, having 2 days was great! The more attention the better! When I got older during middle school and high school, having balloons delivered to me in class for my Airplane Day was more attention than I wanted, especially when I had to explain it...and when it get's to high school... Airplane Day does not sound as cool as one might think! :)

I had asked my mom a while ago to see if she could dig up my old adoption papers and anything else that would provide me with more information about Korea. The ones in Korean unfortunately I do not understand. I will be working on getting those translated. For now, what I read was really... not too exciting! It stated I was handed over by the permission of the Seoul Family Court on January 16, 1988 to Korea Social Services. Korea Social Services were responsible along with Foreign Adoption Consultants to handle the final processes of custody and my emigration to the US. I came over to the US and met my adoptive Mom in May 1988, hence the "Airplane Day!"

On the HO JUK DEUNG BON page (family register) it states that my family origin is Han Yang. After some research I realized that Han Yang is a really common place for korean orphans to come from. Father: no record, Mother: no record. I guess it would have been too easy to have the names and pictures of my biological parents right there. I emailed Korean Social Service with a few questions of how to find out more information on my biological parents. They responded with general statements of me having to fill out an official form along with payment along with it takes time and if they are alive still (which I doubt) that they would need to give permission as well.

I know I must be content with the possibility of never knowing, and I think I am okay with that. There are tons of people out there who never meet their biological parents, and they are not lucky enough to have been raised by a loving family. Never knowing also allows me the luxury to day dream about the possibilities of who they could be, and anyone who knows me knows I have a wild imagination! I am still planning to visit Seoul this year and finding my orphanage hopefully. I'll keep posting as I research more information. Thank you for your support and words of encouragement!!