JOURNEY To Become More Than My Story: It's difficult to forget that my journey in life begins with the story of how I survived racism, poverty, sickness, and rejection. I often referred to myself as a war orphan but technically, my orphan days ended once I was delivered into the open arms of my African-American parents on July 31, 1959.
Back in those days, encouraging mixed race Korean adoptees to forget about the past was thought to be the best way of helping them adjust to their new life outside of the orphanage. Why should they hold on to the past when they were in America now? Social Workers and Adoptive Parents didn't realize that this could cause more harm than good. They didn’t know that mixed race adoptees usually struggle with finding their own identities. Race and culture go hand in hand, but mixed race adoptees are commonly rejected by both of the races that have breathed life into them. It’s difficult to figure out where you stand when your skin is too dark, your hair too light to be Korean and your hair is too soft and curly, your skin to light to be Afro-American or whatever the race of your adoptive parents.
It's easy to say “let go of the past”, but internationally adopted children rarely know or understand what they are required to let go of. And the familiar cliche - "you have to know where you come from to know where you are going" resounds louder in the souls of adoptees than anyone other group. That's why I took an educational, cultural, and spiritual journey into my motherland Korea to discover and recover what I was encouraged to let go of. I will attended Inje Univeristy's Adoptee Program to learn about my Korean heritage. I also visited the orphanage that I came from, and searched for my biological mother.
Life can be an amazing Journey, and everybody has a story of experiencing some type of adversity along the journey, but the main purpose of surviving the journey is to become more than your story and then to use your experience to help others along their journey.
During my journey that began in the Summer of 2011, I surrendered to the process of becoming “More” than my story of poverty, sickness, racism and rejection. I launched out fully conveinced that I would recover from my past all that I needed to lay the orphan spirit trapped within me to rest. I delighted in the expectation that once that leg of my journey was completed, I could be a help others who need encouraging or reminding that they to can and should become more than their story. I desired all of this that I may become a living testimony to the power and beauty of God's healing power, unconditional love, grace, and redemption.
