[Forgotten Children] "Adopted to America... My Mother Never Even Dreamed of It"

Adopted Overseas at 10 Months Old Without Birth Mother's Consent
At Age 11, Adoptive Father's Mental Illness... "The Saddest Time of My Life"
"If I Meet My Birth Mother Again, I Want to Tell Her 'It's Okay'"

"My mother spent over 20 years believing that I was living well in Korea. She never imagined that I could be thousands of kilometers away in the United States, not even in her dreams."

March 25, 1982, was the day Jina Lee arrived at John F. Kennedy Airport in the United States, just 10 months after her birth. She still has a photo taken at the airport that day. Including Lee, a total of five babies were held in the arms of their respective American adoptive mothers. The adoptive mothers held the babies gently, their faces full of excited smiles. Lee spent her childhood in Massachusetts, where she enjoyed happy times—going to the beach in the summer and skiing and skating in the winter. Her adoptive mother, who worked at a hospital, was described as compassionate, independent, and someone who never judged others by appearances alone.

A childhood photo of Jinah Lee, who was adopted to the United States in 1982. Her birth mother said she had no idea that Lee was adopted overseas. Lee said, "Because I was not even informed that I was being sent to the United States, my birth mother had no way to find me."

Lee was about five years old when her adoptive mother told her that she had been adopted. At that time, she found it hard to understand why her adoptive mother would say such a thing. She knew that they did not look alike, but that was never important to Lee. The word "adoption" felt unfamiliar. It was from then on that she began to wonder where Korea was and how her biological mother was doing. She recalls asking her adoptive mother countless times, "Where is my Korean mom?" Lee said, "Not only did I not know whether my birth parents were alive, but it also took me a long time to accept my dual identity as both Korean and American."

Her kind adoptive father began to show signs of mental illness and instability when Lee was 11 years old. "Some days, my adoptive father was happy, and the next day he would be overcome with sadness. I never knew where his emotions would go, so I was always on guard, trying to protect myself. It was the saddest time of my life." Lee longed for the return of ordinary days—family trips to the mountains or the seaside—but five years later, her adoptive parents divorced. Whenever she felt lost, she would vaguely think of Korea. She said, "The time I spent with my biological mother in Korea was only about four or five months. My birth mother decided to give me up for adoption because she felt it would be too difficult to care for me herself. I wanted to return to Korea, but the ocean felt too wide and deep."

According to Lee’s adoption records, she spent about three months at the Kyungdongwon children's welfare facility in Suwon from September 1981, before the president of the Holt Children's Welfare Association was appointed as her guardian and she was sent overseas for adoption the following year. Throughout this process, her biological mother’s consent was never obtained. The Holt documents simply classified Lee as an "abandoned" and "adoptable" child. In the space for the birth mother's name, they wrote "None."

Lee met her biological mother for the first time when she visited Korea in 2002. She said, "My birth mother had no idea that I had been sent to the United States. She naturally assumed I had grown up in a Korean adoptive family." After a brief meeting with her mother, Lee was told, "Please do not contact me again." At the time, Lee felt sad and confused, but now she says she understands her mother's feelings. She attempted to contact her mother once every 10 years, but sensed that her mother was worried that others might find out she had sent a child for adoption. Lee said, "I think my mother feels a deep sense of responsibility and guilt about what happened to me. If I ever have the chance to meet her again, I want to run to her, hug her, and say 'Mom, it's not your fault. It's okay.'"

She has visited Korea a total of four times so far. Each time, she says, she feels as if she has returned to her hometown. She also enjoys watching Korean movies and dramas. She plans to visit Korea again for her summer vacation this year. To Korean birth parents who had no choice but to give up their children for adoption, Lee says, "What we want is simply to let you know that we are doing well, and that you no longer need to worry about us. I hope for a world where Korean adoptees and their birth parents can understand and accept each other as they are."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.