International Gathering of Korean Adoptees
Introduction
Purpose
Overview of Gathering events
Introduction
When children from Korea were first placed with adoptive families in the United States and Europe, it was the mid 1950s and many considered it a crazy “social experiment.” Social workers said, “They’re cute babies and delightful toddlers, but what will happen to them when they grow up?” Those first adoptees and their families pioneered intercountry adoption without the benefit of previous experience or information.
Adoption practices in general during the 1950s were secretive, judgmental and obscure. Those early Korean adoptions split wide open the issues of acknowledgment. These adoptions could not be secret and were observed by some with doubt and suspicion. There was no prior history, no road map to follow, but it worked. It wasn’t always easy, and there certainly have been lessons learned along the way, but today, intercountry adoption is an accepted global institution.
Those “cute babies and delightful toddlers” of the first twenty years have grown up. We are parents, grandparents, mature adults, world citizens. International adoptees in the last twenty years have benefited from what was learned in the first twenty years: acknowledgment of race and ethnicity; attention to issues of loss; grief and connecting with the individual personal histories that children bring with them to their adoptive family. It is not possible to change the adoption experience for the first generation, but the deep and profound gift of connecting with one another can and should take place. It is deserved, and it is time.....
Purpose
This is the first significant and deliberate opportunity for the first generation of Korean adult adoptees to come together, worldwide. This is not a conference of political or ideological agendas. It is not intended to highlight individuals or individual accomplishments. Rather, it is a gathering together of Korean adoptees who share the common life experience of intercountry adoption. Limiting participation to the “first generation” brings the historical perspective to the forefront. As individual human beings, we are marvelously unique, and each of us has been further formed by our individual life experiences. We honor, respect and celebrate those differences. This “Gathering” is a time for us to celebrate that which we all share....
PROFESSIONAL EDUCATION
KOREAN ADOPTEES GATHERING
korean adoptees gathering archive
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© 1999 The Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute
