Mark Wilson, 31, is a Korean-American adoptee who has lived in Korea for the past six years. Wilson grew up as a typical suburban kid but struggled with feelings of fitting in and dealing with racism on his own in his almost all white town. At college, he befriended some Korean foreign exchange students and started to feel accepted as an ethnic Korean by his new friends. He also spent time as a youth counselor at an adoptee camp by Holt International. Those experiences convinced him to return to and discover Korean for himself. Wilson shares some humorous and touching stories about his life here.
Six years ago, Korean adoptee Hana Crisp, 32, of Melbourne, Australia, found her birth family, including a biological half-brother Subin Kim, 29. Both agreed to be interviewed about their relationship and the reunion process over time. In separate interviews, the biological half-siblings provide a rare glimpse of what connecting and reestablishing family bonds is like after a lifetime apart, and within the context of relinquishment.
Brian Park, 25, is a Korean-American adoptee and is gay. He's been living in Korea since 2014 when he met his birth family. Park is used to feeling different - first growing up in remote Iowa as one of only a few Asian faces, and later as he came to terms with his sexuality in Arizona, among new friends and at a new school. We'll hear about his path to self-acceptance and and how being in Korea has meant having to negotiate a different set of societal norms, and why he does.
Miranda Kerkhove, 41, is a Korean adoptee from The Netherlands. A translator by trade, Kerkhove's interest in her ethnic roots began linguistically and continues today through her devotion to learning the Korean language. Despite moving back to her birth country, Kerkhove describes situations that make her feel a sense of duality, of uneasiness and comfort.
Megan Arnesen, 30, of Plymouth, Minnesota spent the summer in Daejeon, Korea on an English teaching internship. She's a Korean-American adoptee who had already lived in Korea, the land of her birth, previously. This time, Arnesen returned as a new bride and reflected about her reunion with her birth family, being raised in a nearly all-white community in the Midwest and about her feelings about being adopted.
Listen as Madeline Yochum, 25 and Andrew Blad, 28 talk to us about their experiences growing up in North America and what led them to move to Korea. They're also a couple and share their experiences with dating other adoptees and what living in Korea means to them.
Alicia Soon, 33, is a Korean-American adoptee living in Seoul. She talks about her childhood growing up on a farm in rural Pennsylvania, the strained relationship between herself and her adoptive parents, and ultimately her attempt to make sense of the world around her and the forces that brought her into it.