Korean Adoption Agency Visits
Day 2 in Korea
On the second day in Korea, we took our first subway ride to Korean Social Services (KSS), where Susie could view her file with a social worker. We then walked over to Holt, where Marit and Abby would view their files, and to the Eastern Social Welfare Society (ESWS), where I could view my file.
What’s in a file, you may ask? It contains documents all about me before my adoption. Most of it was in Korean, so the social worker had to read it to me or summarize the pages. This was the third time I had seen my file at Eastern. There was nothing new that I hadn’t seen or heard about. I was able to ask questions such as: what does my Korean name mean? Was I really in the orphanage the whole time til I was adopted in America? Who found me? My social worker didn’t know the answer to most of the questions but tried to answer what she could. She told me that she needed my Korean name to be in the Chinese characters before telling me the meaning. (More on that later). My file didn’t say who found me, but I was found by the Uijeongbu City Government offices and then taken to Yangju Babies Home (the orphanage). I did find out that I had measles when I was in Korea. I don’t remember being told that before.
We ended the day by going to the National Center for the Rights of the Child (NCRC), the government office for Korean Child Welfare. In the near future, it will eventually house all the adoption files from all Korean agencies. We heard all about this and were able to ask a lot of questions. The NCRC tracked down my and Susie’s child card from the Yangju City Government office. We had to visit the NCRC to claim it to receive a copy of it.
My child card just had my name and birthdate, nothing else. I didn’t see a picture attached, and I asked why. They said it could have gotten lost, or they didn’t take a photo. Susie’s had a picture attached with a little bit more info. Even though it didn’t have much info, it was a new piece of information I received.
Monday in Korea was a full day, but a good day—lots of information and processing. I still have many questions, but I know I may never receive the answers. I am just curious about what happened when I was in Korea.
I am so happy for you!