On that Sunday, I connected with my past. I was just one of more than four hundred first-generation Korean adoptees. We each had traveled to the present by way of different paths and each was destined for a different future - but for that day, we were one, connecting with our history. It is a past that many people have chosen to forget, merely known as a period of conflict in a distant land. But for us, we were born of that past, born of that war that so many have forgotten.
War ravages every aspect of life, demoralizing integrity and shattering society.
Yet the Korean War was the origin of our existence and the beginning of new lives and hopes. It was because of this war that intercountry adoption exists in such magnitude. It was because of this war that I am here and stand with my fellow adoptees and honor the Korean conflict. We each stood solemnly while listening to prominent speakers. Then, the warm, comforting hand of my sister, also a Korean adoptee, slipped into mine, and I suddenly felt a sense of security and belonging.