By Eun Byoul Oh
November is National Adoption Awareness Month and as I begin to write this month’s editor’s note, I get to reflect on all the adoptee students that I have met and taught in KCCNYC. This month’s newsletter features personal essays from 6 adoptees and their families - we encourage everyone to read each adoptee's stories for some time. They are powerful stories that we are honored to present to you.

By Hannah Elliott & Jon Oaks

This month in our playlist we are reflecting our adoptee’s journeys.  Here is a heartfelt collection of songs celebrating identity, resilience and the journey of adoptees.  These tracks reflect the themes of belonging, connection and self-discovery.  Please enjoy while you reflect with us.

By Jon Oaks
Growing up as a Korean American adoptee in the Midwest shaped my identity in ways I’m still discovering today. I was adopted from Seoul, South Korea, when I was about 3 months old, and was raised in Michigan communities where I was often the only Asian person in my neighborhood or school. Although my parents tried to introduce me to Korean culture through cultural groups, embracing my Korean heritage wasn’t too important to me as a child.

By Mary Collins
The adoption industry, international and domestic, both have something in common: this business is held together by the glue of human emotion. Perhaps it is too dry of me to look at the concept of adoption as merely buyer vs. seller, but the appeal to adopt would not exist if not for the application of one's own personal feelings. And I know this from experience, that if I had not reunited with my family in 2018, it would not have crossed my mind to even consider what adoption did to me.

By Eun Hwa Han
I was born in the late 70s, adopted by my white parents as an infant, and grew up in the south.  I always knew that I was adopted. The facts that I knew growing up were that I was born in “Seoul, South Korea,” my birth date, that I was adopted through Holt as a baby, and that my Gotcha Day was whatever that date was in August.  Ironically, my birthdate turned out to be inaccurate.  I’ve since found out that I was actually born a week prior, which not only changes the birth date, but also my zodiac sign, and my lunar birth year!

By Chi-Na Stoane
I’m watching my son.  I’ve been watching him for days.  It’s like that sometimes.  He becomes paralyzed, then becomes semiconscious, and cannot move until this monstrous disease lets go of him.  I wait, helplessly, praying for him to be released.  Not knowing, just praying… That was and is my life from the time he was five years old. 

By Mary Klein
My name is Mary Klein. I am 52 and live in Orlando, FL. I am married to Casey, my husband of 27 years, and we have 3 children: Skylar 23, Katie 19, Anna 16. I am a Master’s Degreed CRNA (Certified Registered Nurse Anesthesiologist), as is my husband. Two of our three children are at FSU, both my husband and my alma mater, with the eldest about to graduate with his Master’s in Biomedical Engineering. Life is one Helluva ride and it’s far from done. This is my story…

By Matthew Faulkner
My name is Matthew Faulkner, or my Korean name, 오은수 O Eun Su.  I was adopted from Seoul, South Korea on August 26^, 1988.  I was always asked about my adoption story when I was a kid and I would say that it depends if I wanted to search for my birth mother or not.  Internally, I was thinking she probably did not care about me.  However, I was very fortunate to be given my birth mother’s name and her age at the time she had me.  My sister was not so fortunate and she was not given anything.  It amazes me, in a 7-year time span, how much information I had versus what she had.  

By Joshua Kim
This month we celebrate you, the Korean adoptees. You who have been through so much, so much to find your homes amidst challenges that others couldn’t imagine. In this vein of “home”, I picked a poem to share this month from New Orleans based Korean Adoptee writer Tiana Nobile.

By Sharon Stern

This month in the newsletter we are focusing on the stories of Korean adoptees.  Both K-dramas and Korean films frequently touch this subject, but often in very different ways. Read about how both K-dramas and films approach the subject of South Korean adoption.

By Jon Oaks

National Adoption Awareness Month, observed each November, shines a light on the importance of adoption and the unique experiences of adoptees and their families. While it is often a time for awareness campaigns and celebrating the connections formed through adoption, it also serves as an opportunity to explore the complexities of adoption and advocate for adoptee voices in shaping the conversation.

By Amalia Tempel

Kristen Kish, a renowned Korean adoptee top chef, attributes part of her drive to success to her feelings of abandonment from her birth parents. Read about Kish’s life and career.

By Sharon Stern

Premiering K-dramas this month range from cute and silly fluff to revenge, action, mystery with some crime and law thrown in.  The rom-com, dram-com, melodramas and crime/mystery will most likely offer what one would expect from those genres.  There are a couple of stand outs for their oddities and quirks.  Face Me offers a very strange pairing for crime-solving dramas and Mr. Plankton looks downright quirky, but fun.  With interesting story twists and star-studded casts, there is something here for everyone.

By Eun Byoul Oh

In November, we highlight the airing of Finding Dispersed Families. Finding Dispersed Families was a marathon, live broadcast on KBS 1TV that lasted from June 30 to November 14, 1983.

For National Adoption Awareness Month, KCCNYC asked members of our community to share their personal essays about their experience as Korean American Adoptees or as a parent of an adoptee. We hope you will spend time with each story, helping us to more deeply understand the experiences of adoptees. We are profoundly honored to share these with our readers.