They include groups such as Hanulsori Kids, the mostly adoptee drum group that practices in Englewood Cliffs. Some parents seek opportunities for their children to join those of Korean immigrant families in weekend language programs and other activities. The culmination of this effort is the increasing popularity of trips by adoptees to South Korea, many of them now including searches for birth parents. Now, one of the most important things we tell parents is that it's healthy to tell their children about their culture. We're basically an extended family, and the child is the centerpiece.
Some adoptees say that finding out more about where they came from is key to feeling whole.
That's my final goal, and everything else is a step up to it. It helps, she says, to know that her birth parents were unmarried when she arrived and that her birth father was out of work. Those circumstances are not atypical. Most of the Korean children put up for adoption these days are born out of wedlock in a society that frowns on such relationships. But most adoptees are left to wonder just why their birth parents chose not to raise them.