Suha Kim's Story - A Child's Perspective in Transparent/Open Adoption

Suha Kim lives in Incheon, Korea

Should you be transparent about your adoption to others?  This question is not much of a problem for most non-Korean heritage families adopting children from Korea.  But for many Korean-Americans, this is a big struggle - whether to tell their children they were adopted or not, or even to tell others that they are adoptive families. But Suha's story goes even further.  She describes the open adoption experience as well.  Open adoption is when children are allowed to meet birthparents, and transparent adoption is where adoption is not kept secret.  I hope Suha Kim's story will help to put your adoption experience in a proper perspective.

To give a background on her story, when MPAK had a historic first ever national conference to promote domestic adoption in Korea on Saturday, October 14, 2000, there were around 450 in attendance from all corners of Korea.  We hung the banners around the city of Kwachon to aanounce the event titled, "The 1st Annual Adoptive Families Gathering - To Promote Domestic Adoption". 

A woman named Haeran Lee saw the banners, and got curious as to what the event was all about.  She attended and watched musical performances and the presentations on the adoption stories by a few parents.  She had no idea that this event would change her life forever.  She was so moved by the event, that when Monday came, she and her husband, a pastor of a church, immediately went to an adoption agency to adopt a baby girl.  A few weeks later, Suha Kim came home.  The family had a biological son, and Suha was their second child.

Suha is now in 5th grade, and she has blossomed so beautifully.  The family adopted another girl a few years later named Yuna.  The children are being homeschooled, and Suha is a voracious reader, and she is well beyond her years in terms of academic maturity.  This blog will feature a writing by Suha Kim on her adoption experiences and her experience of meeting her birthmother.  She presented her story at the Annual MPAK Summer Adoption Seminar (Aug 12-14), which was attended by over 250 families from all over Korea.

Open adoption is something that is not comfortable for many adoptive parents, and the concept of open adoption has been in Korea for about six or seven years only.  Even I have some mixed feelings towards open adoption, but here is a story of Suha Kim where open adoption seems to be working well for her.
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Hello my name is Suha Kim. I am in fifth grade. I have an older brother who is in 10^th grade and a younger sister in 2nd grade. In my family, only my younger sister and I were adopted.

Earier picture of Suha's family when she was a toddler, Suha is on the left

When I was seven years old, I met my birthmother for the first time. Since then, I see her every year on my birthday. I call her “Auntie”.  Whenever Auntie comes to visit me, she brings a birthday present. She also brings gifts for my brother, younger sister, my Mom and Dad. I love receiving presents from my birthmother.

Time to time my Mom tells me, “I am so glad that Auntie comes to see you once a year. There is yet another person who loves and cares for you, Suha.”  Honestly, I thought my Mom would not want me to see my birthmother. But after hearing that from my Mom, I was relieved to know that I could see her once a year. I was thankful that my Mom understood how I felt.

I think my Mom is a courageous woman. It is very unusual in Korea for an adopted child to meet her birthmother once a year. I think you would have to be a bold person to allow such a thing. I also think my Mom understands people well.

Sometime ago, while I was talking with my Mom about adoption she said, “I can only imagine how scared Auntie must have been for having a baby at such a young age. I wanted her to be able see you grow up. That is the reason why I have made arrangements for the two of you to meet once a year on your birthday.”

I also tried to imagine how scared Auntie would have felt. I do understand. Although I see my birthmother once a year, there is one very important fact I will never forget. My Mom is my REAL Mom. If you were adopted and have had a chance to meet your birthmother, you would probably say the same thing -- that your Mom is your REAL Mom.  That is why I recommend that adopted children to meet with their birthmother even if it’s just once.

My Mom has always talked with me on adoption.  Now I am old enough to understand about adoption. But I still think, “So what if I was adopted?” I think my Mom made a right choice by telling me that I was adopted when I was still little. Because she was so open with me I am able to think positively about adoption.

I think about my birthmother when my Mom scolds me. My Mom says that adopted children often think about their birthmothers when being reprimanded. I think it’s very natural.

I have never asked, “Why couldn’t my birthmother keep me?” I just accept it as reality. When I grow up I really hope to adopt three children. I want to be able to understand how adoptive parents feel and how adopted children feel. I want to share with my adopted children how I felt as an adoptee.

I think adoptive parents usually feel afraid or offended when their kids want to meet their birthmothers. But, I think you should just accept it. Adopted children naturally have desire to meet their birthmothers once in their life time. Some Moms don’t want their kids to have other mothers. They might think that their kids would consider the birthmothers as their real Moms. Kids are only curious to know about them.  I remember asking my Mom what my birthmother looked like and if she was pretty.

It was when I met the Auntie for the third time that my Mom finally told me that the lady was actually my birthmother.  She tells me that I responded by saying “I had a feeling that was the case”.  Even today when I think about that episode, it makes me smile. I was so immature. Meeting Auntie answered all my questions. I know what she looks like, what kind of hair she has—my curiosity has been satisfied.

Once, my Mom was scolding me and I told her that I missed my birthmother. I could tell that she was shocked. She stopped scolding immediately. Since then, I could not share everything with my Mom. I didn’t expect to see her get upset. I thought she would never get surprised by such a thing. When I saw her expression, I was very surprised too.

So, I have one advice for you. When your child says that she wants to see her birthmother, don’t be shocked. If you become upset, your child would not be able to share her honest feelings. Also, when your child wants to talk about adoption, please listen carefully and attentively. When your child sees that you are interested, she would want to talk more and more about adoption. Then, you will be able to have so much more conversations.

I suppose adoptive parents can get help from books on adoption. I read a lot about adoption. When I read I can really learn and understand about adoption and other adopted children.

There is a book titled “No More Secrets.” There are many stories in the book but my favorite is the story about Lavender Princess Eunbi. Princess Eunbi grew jealous of her little adopted sister who drew all the attention from her parents.

She took 2/3 of my parents’ love and didn’t want to listen to me, so I wanted her to be sent back. Now I think she is pretty cute when she listens to me. But when she gets all the attention, I feel like saying “Send her back”.  I am glad that I have a younger sister.

Sometimes, I feel very proud to be adopted. I think I started feeling this way ever since I joined The Korean Adopted Children’s Choir. Maybe it’s because people recognize us as the adopted children. I think it’s a good thing. It’s the kind of self confidence that comes by declaring “I was adopted!”

Suha in the Korean Adopted Children's Choir performing during the National Adoption Day event on May 11, 2001, Seoul, Korea.  The Choir is organized by MPAK.

 I think children need to have self confidence. Children need their parents’ help to become confident. My self confidence started with my parents’ teachings but later I improved on it myself.

Once, as I was getting ready to perform on the stage my inner voice said, “I was adopted, adoption is nothing to be ashamed of!” I wish that a lot of people would realize that adoption is not shameful.

I wish that many people would come to know adoption isn’t something to be embarrassed, but that it has to do with being happy and in love.  I wish to continue to declare this through my involvement with the Korean Adopted Children’s Choir. Adoption is not something to be ashamed of, but that it is love!!  Adoption is happiness!!  When all the adopted children come together and declare together such message, then all the people will believe that adoption is truly happiness and love.

Thank you.

Suha Kim

Will the ICA Program in Korea Come to an End?

Will the Intercountry Adoption (ICA) program in Korea come to an end?  This question has been around for as long as I can remember.  And this question will certainly generate uncertainties and discomforts for many wishing to adopt children from Korea.  In this blog my aim is to look at this uncertainty in a bigger perspective and show that while the ICA in Korea is unstable and going through a lot of transition, it isn’t all doom and glooms either.  

The ICA program in Korea will certainly come to an end unless Korea adopts and ratifies The Hague Adoption Convention (hereafter called ‘Hague Convention’ or ‘Convention’).  The Hague Convention proposes the three priorities in the welfare of children.  The first is to make every attempt to return the children to their biological families.  If that doesn’t work the second option is to place the children domestically within the country of origin.  When that option doesn’t work the third option is to place the children overseas.  So far, every indication seems to show that this is the direction that Korea is going.

Korea is trying to gear up to adopt the Hague Convention, but they are at odds with a few requirements dealing with how to implement the Hague Convention.  One of the requirements by the Convention is for a country to have a centralized adoption authority to control and manage the welfare of homeless children from the time they become homeless to the time they get placed in homes.  In Korea, the Ministry of Health and Welfare (MOHW) is the central authority, and they have established the Korean Central Adoption Resources (KCARE) to develop and implement the database system to track all the homeless children in Korea (whether they are in orphanages or in custody of adoption agencies) and if possible to have database on birth families.  In most cases the adoption agencies will be the keepers of the information related to privacy matters on the children they serve, i.e. information regarding birthmothers, etc. 

But one issue thing that supersedes all the Hague matter is whether Korea would want to continue to allow their children to be adopted abroad at all (the third option for Hague), and there is a plenty of opposition to this.  Thus the struggle is there for Korea whether to ratify the Convention or not.  If they ratify, they are essentially allowing ICA to continue.  If they don’t, then ICA will certainly come to an end.  But I strongly believe Korea will eventually ratify the Convention. 

Even if Korea ratifies the Hague Convention, my concern is that even with all the effort is made by Korea to place children based on the first two priorities of Hague (first to place them into their biological families, and second to place them through domestic adoption), Korea may not follow through with the third option of placing the remaining children through ICA due to such a strong opposition to ICA by many.  It is much easier for them to put the helpless children in institutions and know it will be quite rather than choose to place the children overseas and hear complaints.

The Convention has been adopted by 79 countries including the US and China.  Korea has not adopted the Convention yet, but there is an ever increasing pressure in the international community for Korea to ratify the Convention.  By theory, if Korea adopts the Hague Convention, the ICA should go on indefinitely, though in much smaller scale. This aspect of Hague seems to bother all the anti-adoption organizations in Korea, but I have yet to hear any clear and sound objections coming from them. 

If by chance Korea does not adopt the Hague Convention, then the ICA will most certainly be closed in Korea.  This is evidenced by the general attitude of the Korean nationals, especially the politicians.  Over the years there have been several attempts by a few Korean politicians to propose the closure of ICA.   I can remember in 1999 when a politician in Korea proposed the closure of ICA by 2006, and in 2007 a government minister promised the closure of ICA by 2011, and recently another congressional representative tried to pass a mandate to close the ICA by 2016, but she was not successful even though she was able to bring about many revisions to the Korean adoption law that now heavily favors birthmother’s rights. (I will write later a separate blog on the adoption law changes).  So far, none of these politicians have succeeded, but this does not mean that it won’t happen.  It may just be a matter of time when the ICA will come to an end if Korea doesn’t adopt the Hague Convention. 

It is without question that this issue on ICA became much more noticeable and debated right after the 1988 Seoul Olympic.  The matter of ICA gained much attention during the Olympic as one of the major US networks featured a segment on the ICA that brought great humiliation to Korea as the country only wanted to project positive images to the world.  The Olympic had a slogan that said, “The World to Seoul, and Seoul to the World.”  So each day every effort was made by Korea to project beautiful sceneries, cultural images and the miracle of economic recovery in Korea.  It was during one of those stories that the network featured a story on how Korea continues to send children abroad to be adopted.

You can just imagine the uproar this has caused in Korea (and also in the Korean-American communities).  Immediately after the network story broke through, there were many Koreans that demanded to halt the ICA.  Their reasons were all the same.  That ICA was a national shame, that it is an embarrassment for Korea in light of such an important international event.  That Korea was no longer a poor country, and the fact that Korea was economically strong enough to host an Olympic meant that they should be able to take care of their own children.  The Korean media flamed these sentiment for many months after the Olympic. 

I remember watching that segment of the network story and as I recall, the story itself wasn’t positive or negative.  It was just stating a fact that due to Korean nationals not adopting the homeless children they had to be placed overseas. Regardless, Korea did not like it at all because it exposed the weakness in the Korean people.

It was in that moment I began to question, “Why don’t Koreans adopt?” “Why are they upset at foreigners wanting to adopt the children that they don’t want to adopt?”  “Is there something I can do about this?”   These were some of the questions that later helped me to form MPAK movement to promote domestic adoption in Korea, and to promote adoption by Korean-Americans.  Over the years, MPAK has brought tremendous changes in the hearts and minds of Koreans to be more positive towards the concept of adoption.

However, I am concerned for the upcoming 2018 Winter Olympic Games that will be held at Pyeonchang, Korea.  While I am very happy that Korea could host such a great event, it may not be so favorable for all the homeless children.  I am deeply concerned that Korea may choose to abandon or temporarily halt the ICA program by 2017 as the Winter Olympic Games will be held in February of 2018.  Of course, this will be done to avoid another embarrassing situation they faced during the 1988 Summer Olympic Games.

My philosophy in adoption has always been the same as the priorities outlined by Hague.  A priority should be given for the children to be placed domestically (either to birth families or adoption).  If not then the ICA program should be the next best solution.  But placing children into foster care should be exercised with caution, and placing them in institution should be the last option.  In my years of promoting adoption in Korea through MPAK, I have never spoken against ICA as there have been so many wonderful families that have done wonders to so many homeless Korean children.  Without those families the children would most likely grow up in institutions in Korea.  And I am certainly a living proof of that. 

I believe the most important thing for children is for them to grow up in loving homes, whether they be in Korea or in overseas.  Unfortunately, not too many Koreans seem to put the best interests of children first.  If they could only see from the hearts of homeless children…

NEWS FLASH - The EP Process Has Started to Flow Again in Korea

Exit Permit (or Emmigration Permit) has started  to flow again in Korea.  This according to the Ministry of Health and Welfare (MOHW) of Korea today. 

Because this year's Quota Level has already reached near the limit before the freeze went into effect, there are fewer than100 EPs that will be granted for the remainder of this year between the four adoption agencies in Korea.

The EPs that were submitted in May will be granted first.  It appears that during the first six months of 2011, there have been rather high level of EPs granted that made the Quota get filled up quickly. I hope all the children will come home soon.

MPAK the the East and the West

MPAK-East Regional Picnic, Van Saun Park, Pararmus, NJ, July 23, 2011

With lots of travels and busy schedule, I am now able to sit down and report two MPAK gatherings that recently occurred within two weeks apart.  The MPAK-East Regional met on July 23rd at the Van Saun Park, Paramus, NJ with 40 people in attendance.  We endured the 104 degrees temperature and humidity, but the tree shades and gentle breeze provided some comforts.  MPAK-East Region has not been very active past two years, and this picnic was an attempt to revitalize the gathering, and it was a very important gathering.

A special thanks to Min Lee and Ben Huh, who took over the leadership role again despite living in South Carolina, and driving 11 hours to organize and attend the picnic.  There were some familiar faces at the picnic and it was great to see the Jungs and Hyuns again, and there were many new faces which was very special and I hope they will continue to support the East Regional gatherings. Due to many families spread out so widely in the East coast area, there will be three mini gatherings planned before another big gathering planned for the Christmas time.

MPAK-Valley Region (north of LA), Gathered at Andrew & Helen Kim's Place, July 31, 2011

Out in the Pacific West, the MPAK-Valley Regional group area met at Andrew & Helen Kim's place. The temperature must have hovered around 95, but once the sun set it was very pleasant.  The kids swimmed in the pool, jumped in the moonbounce, and played with a dog named Oreo (really looked like an Oreo cookie color).  One of the highlights of the gathering was the campfire, where kids roasted the marshmallows, using improvised sticks by taping chopsticks together. 

The MPAK-Valley Region director Andrew and Helen Kim have adopted three children from Korea.  Their third child has autism, but progressing very well although challenging at times.  That day I learned something new about Andrew Kim, or rather Coach Kim.  Andrew is the varsity head football coach at the Chatsworth High School, that has a student body population of 3300.  This distinction is very rare for a Korean-American to hold.  I know of no other Korean-American that is a head football coach of any team.  It is a very rare combination of being a football coach and and an adoptive parent that make him and Helen very special.

TV Campaign for Orphans – Restores Human Rights, not the Opposite

There is a bitter conflict between the pro-adoption organizations and the anti-adoption organizations in Korea.  On the pro-adoption side MPAK is teamed with the adoption agencies and the Korean Government’s Ministry of Health and Welfare (MOHW), and the other side is represented by KoRoots, adoptee organizations called TRACK and ASK, and the Korean Unwed Mothers Support Networks (KUMSN). 

With the recent Korean Government’s implementation of a stricter control on abortion practices and limiting the number of children being adopted abroad through the quota system have resulted in overabundance of homeless children in Korea.  As of last May, there have been over 1800 babies in Korea that have no place to go.  Adoption agencies are filled to capacity to handle additional intakes, and they have in fact started turning away the birthmothers wanting to relinquish their unplanned pregnancies. 

It was 1800 in May. By now it may be over 2000.  Seeing this tragedy, MPAK in Korea has worked with MOHW and the domestic adoption agencies to produce the PSAs to find homes for these children domestically.  Initially we produced 30 such PSAs on 30 different babies that needed homes.   Each PSA is only one minute long and features one baby.  The images of the babies in the PSAs are real, but pseudo names are used to protect their identities.  The PSA provides no other identifying information other than some description on how cute the babies are and what their personality traits are.  At the bottom of each PSA lists the names of the domestic adoption agencies that the viewers can contact to learn more on the babies.  Each PSA concludes with a remark like, “…who would be the mother and father for this baby...”

A screen shot of a PSA - Kim, Yul (not real name), 6 months old. The small letters in the logo on the upper right side says, "Campaign to Find Families"

Another screen shot of a PSA featuring Jang, Woojin (not real name), (4 mos).

Just a meager 30 PSAs out of 1800 babies that need homes were produced initially.  The idea for the PSA was formed when we learned this is how things are done in the US with programs such as “Wednesday’s Child” broadcast featuring children in need of homes.  To learn more about this, in April 2011 MPAK and MOHW from Korea visited and interviewed the adoption experts in the US State Department and the Adoption Exchange.  There we learned that the success rate for the programs such as “Wednesday’s Child” is staggering 70%, as that many featured children would find homes.  So we wanted to use the similar strategy to find homes for the 1800 babies that have no place to go.  So producing the 30 PSAs was a start.

Initially the PSAs were being broadcasted through a Christian Broadcasting Station (CBS) in Korea.  They started to broadcast three PSAs each day.  However, within a day or two of the broadcast, there were several protests against the station to immediately stop the broadcast, claiming that featuring of the babies through such means is an infringement of human rights violation.  The person who led this charge was Rev. Kim Dohyun of KoRoots, who has always spoken out against adoption, whether be it intercountry or domestic.

He has been a strong advocate of birthmothers’ rights. That in and of itself is a good cause and somebody needs to advocate on behalf of them to provide economic and social environment for the birthmothers that want to keep their babies.   However, where he is very wrong is that he blames adoption for the cause of separation of children from their birthmothers. So he feels the need to speak against any form of adoption both domestic and intercountry. 

What he fails to recognize is that adoption is a response to already separated children, not the other way around.  Each year there are so many more birthmothers that choose to give up their babies than those that want to keep them. So his effort to speak against adoption is falling on deft ears.  Last year I remember being in a same meeting sponsored by the Korean government on an adoption forum, and he remarked that he will run a campaign to remove The National Adoption Day (May 11) in Korea.  I couldn’t believe what I was hearing and so did many others in the room.  Of course, he will never succeed in this.

Regarding the PSAs to find homes for the children, his reasoning is that using the actual images of children in the PSAs is to commercialize the adoption using children, thus this is a violation of human rights. That using their real images violates children’s rights to privacy.  In a country where adoption is often practiced secretly, the PSAs represented a dramatic new approach to the adoption promotion where the majority of Korean nationals were not familiar with.  Rev. Kim called on the National Human Rights Commission in Korea to investigate the whole matter.

However, having known the Rev. Kim over several years and being familiar with his work, I believe his real motives for the accusation stems more from his opposition to adoption rather than human rights reasons.    To his perspective, there are 1800 birthmothers that deserve to raise their own children, and the PSAs will take that opportunity away from the birthmothers.  However, he does not want to admit the fact that those 1800 birthmothers have willingly abandoned their children and don’t want them back.  Not surprisingly, Rev. Kim wasn’t the only one that protested against the broadcasting of the PSAs.

The CBS TV station, upon hearing the complaints from several people, decided to temporarily hold off the broadcast as they did not want to be in the middle of a conflict that might risk the status as a Christian broadcast station.  It was a very disappointing decision, but I was able to understand their predicament as well.

Upon viewing the PSAs, the Human Rights Commission issued a stated position that the PSAs violated the Human Rights.  It was yet another blow in our efforts to find homes.  Upon reading their explanation, they did not object to adoption promotion, but objected in the method of using the actual images to promote the cause for children and feared that their interests may not be best served through transparency in adoption rather than secrecy. 

It was obvious that the Commission had a bias against the transparent adoption, which they were quiet ignorant.  They were not aware that the adoption culture in Korea was moving fast towards transparent adoption culture rather than the traditional secret adoption practices.  Adoption agencies have shown that more than 50% of the couples are now choosing to be transparent in their adoptions. 

I wrote an email to the Commission explaining why the PSAs are not a violation of human rights but an effort to establish human rights for homeless children.  I reasoned that if Korea doesn’t invest in one minute of effort to find a home for a child, he/she may grow up in an institution for 18 years, and deprived of a family that would become even greater form of child abuse and human rights violation.  It doesn’t end in 18 years.  The impact and the consequences of having lived in an institution will follow the rest of child’s life.  I challenged them by stating that either choose one minute or choose 18 years of misery and suffering.  Thus the PSAs was an effort to restore the human rights for the homeless children, not the other way around.

The Human Rights Commission in Korea has not responded to my email.  Thus I have concluded that the Human Rights Commission in Korea is really out of touch with the reality and I hold them in contempt for blocking the opportunities for children to grow up in homes. 

Interestingly enough, when we (MPAK and MOHW) met earlier in April 2011 with the representatives from the US State Department and the Adoption Exchange, we asked a few questions regarding the possibility that some may object to the PSAs by taking issues that it violates privacy and human rights.  Their answers were very candid.  They stated, “That sort of opposition is seen even in the US, but we just ignore them.  There will always be some who will take issue with this approach to find homes, but the results show that PSAs do work and so many children have found homes.  What could be more important that?”  I guess another question can be raised by asking, “What are the opponents of the TV campaign doing to help those homeless children?”- Absolutely nothing.

Despite some criticisms, The US government took the position that best serves the needs of children by implementing numerous TV campaigns and other programs to find homes for so many children.   I hope the Korean Human Rights Commission and the leaders of the Korean government would come to their senses and follow the example from the greatest democracy in the world.

Explanation for the Slow Exit Permits from Korea

I made phone calls last night to talk with an agency and the Ministry of Health and Welfare (MOHW) representative to find out why there has been noticeable delays in the Exit Permit (EP) granted recently.  Normally once an adoption agency files an EP request with MOHW, it usually takes a month or so to get MOHW to clear it.  As of today, there are EPs that were submitted in May of this year that have not been approved yet. This has brought a lot of anxiety among the waiting families whether their children will come home or not.

For those of you who are not too familiar with the intercountry adoption (ICA) process, EP is like the last hurdle in the long process where the Korean Government (or MOHW) finally approves that a child may exit the country to be placed overseas. Once an EP has been granted, the parents are notified by an agency when the child will arrive home.  The EP requests are made by the agencies when the number of adoption placements by the agency falls within the allotted quota limitation assigned by MOHW.  If an assignment of a child is beyond that quota, then the family must wait until the next year to get the child home.

In talking with MOHW, the delays are a deliberate attempt by them to make the adoption agencies comply with their agreement to provide documents related to post adoption placements.  To elaborate on this the domestic adoption agencies in Korea (Holt, Eastern, SWS, & KSS) have an agreement to provide post adoption placement reports back to MOHW, and for many years this part of the adoption process has been ignored by both the adoption agencies and MOHW.  I say both because the adoption agencies have not been compliant on this agreement and MOHW for not having requested this until this year.  So for over 50 years of ICA, MOHW has finally found a clause in the agreement that this portion of the agreement was not being faithfully followed by the agencies. According to MOHW, the post placement service agreement requires the agencies to report on a child until he/she is issued a US citizenship. 

This all came about when a question was raised by a government representative in Korea on how they are to know how well the adopted children are coping with their new environment overseas.  At this MOHW could not answer, so they turned to the agencies to provide them with an answer on post placement reports of children and whether they knew what percentage of children they have placed have the US citizenship.  The agencies didn't know either.  So the MOHW has requested the agencies to provide the post placement reports and a data on the number of children that have been issued the US citizenship.  In the mean time all the EP requests filed with MOHW would be put on hold until the agencies comply.

I tried to reason with MOHW that granting EPs to the waiting children and the domestic agencies complying with the post placement clause seem to be two separate issues, thus EPs should be allowed so that children will go to their homes.  But MOHW stated that they would not be able to release the EPs without the agencies' cooperation on providing post placement reports.  They reasoned that for many years the agencies only cared about sending children abroad, but showed no interest in how children are adjusting to their new environment, thus there is no way to substantiate to those questioning on how the adopted children are doing.
MOHW maintained that this is one area that must be cleared by the agencies for them to get the waiting children released for adoption.

After much wrangling between the MOHW and the agencies, I am happy to report that today (as of 7/19/11 blog) that all four agencies have agreed to sit down with the MOHW to show that they do indeed can provide the post placement reports in the hope of getting the EPs cleared.  I don't know what will come out of this meeting, most likely a determination by MOHW on requesting additional data until they are satisfied.  MOHW has however given some relaxation to agencies as they seem to understand that to gather so may post placement reports at one time is impossible for the agencies.  So the MOHW has asked the agencies to provide the post placement service reports on those children that were placed January and February of this year.  And that the post placement reports must be provided from now on.  Based on MOHW's review of the reports, they may or may not grant EPs, but I am sure the agencies will do all they can to cooperate to resolve this matter as soon as possible.

Please keep on praying for all those involved in the process, that God's wisdom that always advocates for the best interest of children will prevail and that they will all come home soon.

Emile Mack's Story at the MPAK-LA Region Gathering

The MPAK-LA Region met at Haram's house (Henry and Miyon Hough) on June 25th.  This blog is wee bit late due to my work travels, and other pressing matters.  The Houghs did a fantastic job in hosting the gathering, which was attended by 13 families.  With a plenty of space for kids to play, and with a great company of people, topped with sumptuous dinner was fabulous. 

The main story of the evening belonged to Emile and Jenny Mack as they shared their story of adopting Miya, who came last year.  Emile shared his story through a slide show that chronicled the adoption adventure that began when they came to the MPAK picnic in May 2008.  After much wrangling with the adoption process due to his age limitation, where Emile and I visited Korea together to resolve this, Miya finally came home.  Both Emile and Jenny are very happy and having lots of fun spending time with Miya. 

Emile is one of the most successful adoptees I met, as he has a very close ties to his parents that were African-Americans.  A very unusual type of adoption, but his parents have molded and inspired Emile to become who he is today.  Today he is the Deputy Fire Chief of the Los Angeles Fired Department overseeing 4000 employees as the No. 2 man in the department.  Both Emile and Jenny wanted a daughter to make a complete family.  But Emile also wanted to give back to the adoption, which he feels has blessed him very much.  You may read more about his fascinating stories with pictures as he was featured in the KoreaAm magazine not too long ago at:  http://iamkoream.com/where-i-come-from/

The surprising part of all, and a very pleasant one, is how Miya resembles so much like her father in looks as if she was born from him and Jenny.  The slide presentation culminated with the scenes from their celebration of Miya's first birthday celebration.  It was a beautiful presentation, and a beautiful story.  We wish all the happiness and blessings to the Mack family.

Emile, Jenny, and Miya shared their adoption story at the gathering.

This is Haram's House where we met.

In the kitchen area where the sumptuous dinner was served

Some of the dinner spread

Me in red conducting the meeting and introducing Emile

Emile shares his adoption story

A group photo of the MPAK-LA families