I Adopted A Baby. The Biggest Screw Up In My Life

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**I Adopted A Baby. The Biggest Screw Up In My Life** is the third episode of ACTUALLY HAPPENED series.

## Original Description

This is David, and this is the story of the biggest screw up he ever made in his life.

Seventeen years ago, David and his wife, Caroline, adopted a baby from an Asian American family. He never got to know them at a personal level, and as far as he knew they were very keen to maintain their privacy. They therefore had very few details about the kid’s background, and never tried to find out more. The only thing they knew was that the real parents were too young to look after children.

But David and Caroline were definitely ready to adopt a child. They’d been on a waiting list for a long time, and they were so eager to become parents that they really weren’t interested in where the baby came from. This turned out to be a big mistake.

Soon enough, David and Caroline adopted a handsome, intelligent and affectionate little boy, whom they named Justin. It was love at first sight. When Justin was about eight months old, David and his wife began to feel guilty that they were bringing him up without a connection to his ethnic background. Fortunately, they lived in an area with a sizeable Chinese population, so they figured it’d be easy to introduce him to his roots.

And so for the next seventeen years, David and Caroline did everything possible to honor their son’s ethnic heritage. He attended Chinese language courses, and by the time he was five he could speak both Mandarin and English fluently. They also found a Chinese couple who became friends with Justin and took responsibility for his cultural upbringing. They invited him round to their home to celebrate Chinese holidays, took him out for a Chinese meal every couple of weeks, and practised Mandarin with him. From the time Justin was eight, David took him to China every two years. They never forced him to adopt his ethnic culture, because they didn’t want him to feel there was a difference between them. But they were determined not to rob him of his heritage either. Both David and Caroline were sure they were doing the right thing.

Everything was going well for them until a week ago, when David was filling in Justin’s financial support application for college. He had to track down some old documents he hadn’t looked at in a while. As he was browsing through them, his eyes suddenly fell upon his son’s old adoption records. The surnames of Justin’s biological parents suddenly jumped out at him. He broke out into a cold sweat. Their names were PARK and KIM.

Those are Korean last names. David’s son is not from China. Not one little bit. He’s Korean!

David had never been one of those people who assumes every Asian person is Chinese, and often laughed at others for doing so. But that's what he ended up doing with his own son! Now, he has a seventeen-year-old Korean son who thinks he’s Chinese. He’s spent nearly two decades guiding Justin towards ethnic roots that are not his real ones.

And the best part of the story is that he now has to reveal the truth to his son and wife. Although he’s not sure if he ever will.

## Trivia

* It's one of the first three episodes of the series, from which neither was translated to other languages. Besides there are also Don't Judge A Book By Its Cover - Storytime and My Life With HIV.