When You Were Born In Korea
Gifted to me in 1997
I received this as a gift in 1997 when I first visited my American Adoption Agency, Dillon International Inc. in Tulsa, OK. I remember I had a college assignment in Psychology in which I was supposed to write about what I knew of my life prior to being born and right after being born. So I decided to call my adoptive parents who refused to answer questions (my mother) and didn’t know much (my dad). This led me to find my agency. I thought I was adopted through Lutheran Family Services in Omaha, NE because I remember my youngest sister being adopted through them. When I called them, they said I was adopted through Dillon International Inc. in Tulsa and I said, “How in the world did they choose that agency?” So I called Dillon International and they were able to answer my questions.
Shortly after college, I was invited to come to Tulsa to visit the agency. I was able to sit down with a social worker to go through my file which there wasn’t much there. After meeting the staff that weekend, I was gifted this book. I wish I had this book when I was a child. It might have answered some questions but also create more questions. It is definitely a gift I cherish. Not only the book but the trip to Tulsa that weekend.
This is a memory book for children adopted from Korea. It was written by Brian Boyd and the pictures by Stephen Wunrow. It walks you through when a birthmother finds out she is pregnant, she has choices to make but the hardest choice is to give up her baby. Then the baby is either placed in an orphanage or a foster home to be cared for until there is a family who is ready to adopt. In the early 1950s through the 1960s, more babies were placed in orphanages. Foster homes came later. I learned that after the Korean War, there were over 400 orphanages that were opened due to so many babies and children abandoned by the Korean War. It is a beautiful book.