What I Know About My Adoption

And the Many Questions I Still Have

I really don’t know that much about my adoption as I was never allowed to ask questions while growing up. I found some of the answers in my Adoption file at Dillon International Inc. when I visited them in 1996. Here is a list of the compiled questions I had and still have…

• Who is my birth mother?

• When was I placed in the orphanage (Yangju Babies Home)? January 30, 1972

• What year did my adoptive parents inquire about adopting a child? November 24, 1972

• When did the Korean Agency (Eastern Social Welfare Society) know about me? January 23, 1973

• When was the home study done with my adoptive parents? March 30, 1973

• When was my Korean Family Name (LEE) given to the Korean Court? April 4, 1973

• When was my Korean Family Name (LEE) registered in Korea? April 16, 1973

• When did my orphanage give consent to the Eastern Social Welfare Society to be adopted? April 25, 1973

• When did Dillon International become my legal guardian? April 26, 1973

• When did my adoptive parents find out about me? August 20, 1973

• When did my adoptive parents accept me to be adopted as their child? November 16, 1973

• When was my final medical appointment to come to the US? January 22, 1974

• When did I arrive in the US and where? January 25, 1974, to Chicago, IL, and another paper says February 22, 1974, so I am not sure which date is correct.

• When did my adoptive parents petition for legal adoption? September 10, 1974

• When was my Adoption date? October 15, 1974

• When did I become a citizen of the United States? July 14, 1977

• How much did my adoption cost?

• What was I like in the orphanage?

• Who is my birth father?

• How and who came up with my Korean name?

• What does my Korean name (Lee, Bok Shil) mean?

P.S. I found out that Chun Joo is the original Family Korean Name and Lee is the Family name. I wonder where that name came from and why that name. I was told that the orphanage named me.

And so many more questions but I will stop here. As I reflect on all these dates (and these are a lot of dates) the adoption process can be long.