Disappointing results… for now.
Growing up I wasn’t that interested in who my “real” parents were. As far as I knew they were living with me already. And it annoyed me when people asked about my “real” parents. “Don’t you wonder what you’re real parents are like?” “That must suck- being adopted then your parents here get divorced.” Like it must suck less to know your blood related parents hate each other. So maybe I was just trying to rebel against those people by not caring about it. But recently I have been curious. I’m getting older which means my birth parents are getting older as well. I feel like if I don’t start searching now it could be too late.
My first step was to contact the adoption agency which is Holt. At first I tried Holt in Oregon. They said I had to pay $100 bucks to see information about ME. That doesn’t seem right, I thought. In fact it seems crazy! Thankfully some good people (thanks TTR!) warned me about the evil Holt and how I shouldn’t have to pay this money. So my next step was to contact Holt Korea which I did. They sent a copy of my papers, no questions asked. I was excited and anxious to receive them. I wondered what kind of top secret information was in there. Maybe it had a name of a family member, or a birth parent, or that my billionaire birth grandmother died and her billions are waiting for me in Korea! Well, I got them, quickly opened the package and duh… I can’t read Korean. I was a little disappointed but I could still read some of the pages. In English there was information about my stay at the White Lily Orphanage though not much to go on. I read on hoping to get some of that secret stuff that was so valuable to Holt. But nothing. At least nothing that I didn’t already know. I was found by a police box in Teagu. I was sick. Yada, yada. Interestingly the medical records were in English but I could barely read them. I guess that old saying that doctors have horrible handwriting is true worldwide:)
I am currently waiting to see if a friend of a friend can translate the rest of the papers for me. It may be a repeat of the English parts but I still need to know. Hopefully my friend will come through for me and help me get them translated. I will give an update if I find that top secret info I’ve been waiting for. If nothing comes of it, I’m not sure what the next step should be. I’ve heard about how the agencies don’t always tell the truth. But I don’t want to search endlessly and wind up even more disappointed. I guess if I get to that point I’ll have to accept the fact that yes, I have wondered what my “real” parents are like and I’ll remain wondering.
twicetherice said,
May 12, 2007 at 9:48 am
Well, of course I wouldn’t want to generalize, but that police drop box in Taegu and the White Lily Orphanage seem to be popular places these days, among more than a few adoptee friends & acquaintances who’ve recently made inquiries to Holt Korea … *sigh*
I’m keeping my fingers crossed for you, though. You never know what might turn up. Good luck, comrade.
sume said,
May 12, 2007 at 2:29 pm
My parents were divorced, too. Coincidentally, not long after I was adopted. Not much of a self-esteem builder there but no different than if I’d not been adopted. People and their weird assumptions.
Why am I not surprised? I didn’t go through any agency but was yanked straight from the vine. I’m not sure anymore if that’s a good thing or a bad thing. Seems the result was very much the same.
My best wishes to you as you search. If there’s one thing I’ve learned, anything could happen.
soon-young said,
May 12, 2007 at 9:40 pm
I empathize on the whole waiting for something in Korean to get translated into English. Keep us updated if you wish. I agree that you never know what could happen.
mundyster said,
May 13, 2007 at 11:34 pm
i will definitely keep everyone updated. nothing new yet. i will probably be quizzing you all for advice on each step i take. beware!
Jaye said,
May 14, 2007 at 8:47 am
Say, is it possible that the sangsengnim who translated your records Soon Young can take a look at Mundyster’s?
Hell, I’d rather pay someone, anyone but Holt to translate.
Hang in there M, you’ll get the translation sooner or later. Since there are more Koreans in my neck of the woods, I’m going to see if I can’t find someone here for you. If you don’t mind having a stranger looking at your personal records that is. I’ll keep you posted.
mundyster said,
May 15, 2007 at 7:27 pm
thanks jaye! i think you are right, there are more koreans in your neck of the woods. and i would pay for the service of course. i’m confident it will get translated in due time. if anything, i can bring it to korea. i’m sure koreans love being stopped on the street to translate papers for clueless americans
ha
Harlowmonkey said,
May 18, 2007 at 10:12 am
I’m a fellow White Lily adoptee. I also bypassed Holt in the US and went directly to Holt Korea. I first went to White Lily in 2000 and the nun who helped me spoke English and was able to help translate. I also had a translator with me and we went to the City Hall (where I was supposedly found). The City hall has a ledger where they recorded all the kids that passed through them to White Lily. You may want to contact White Lily directly too. e-mail me and I’ll see if I can help – or you can contact GOA’L too, and they might be able to help you out.
mundyster said,
May 18, 2007 at 7:45 pm
thanks HM. i will try your advice. its hard to know where to start when the agency tells you you have no chance to begin with. you may be hearing “HELP!!” from me any day now
by the way, mind if i link you?
radiantstar24 said,
May 20, 2007 at 4:01 pm
Hey future roomie! Yeah, go ahead and link my page to your page. Do you mind if I do the same? Actually I’ll have to first figure out how to do that. LoL!
kohsl said,
November 22, 2008 at 4:26 pm
Hi…I don’t know you at all but I too was adopted via White Lily/Holt/found by a local in Taegu City….interesting. I am 36 years old and was adopted in 1972. My parents also divorced abotu 4 years after my adoption. I found your blog b/c I was Googling “Taegu City” to see it’s proximity to Seoul. So what’s up with all of us being “left” or “found” in Taegu? I would be interested to hear about your findings and will check out your blog again. Peace. K
korean-or-american said,
November 22, 2008 at 6:41 pm
Hi K. I didn’t get far in my search so far. I think I have done all I can do from the U.S. The next step is to search in Korea. I think I will have to do some detective work on my own
Have you done any searching yourself? How do your adoptive parents feel about it? Thanks for the comment!