Read this Book: Escaping North Korea

I know I'm on a KOREA-KICK these days, but this is a darn good book, no matter your interests. It's called ESCAPING NORTH KOREA... and I finished it today!

Mike Kim writes about his experiences helping North Korean refugees near the border of North Korea and China. He gave up his life in the U.S. to spend four years helping North Koreans escape, get health care, and rehabilitate.

It is such an amazing book. I cried several times reading it. The stories North Koreans tll are horrifying and heartbreaking. Topics include human trafficking, drugs, gulags (North Korean prisons), and extreme poverty. You won't believe what you're reading. If you don't know much about the North Korean regime or Kim Jong Il, it will also be an interesting read. How the government controls people will blow you away!

I think the book is also very timely since we just saw the release of two U.S. journalists from a North Korean jail. Laura Ling and Euna Lee were detained for allegedly crossing into North Korea illegally... until President Clinton flew to North Korea and asked for their release. The two journalists really haven't talked about their ordeal in prison, but this book may give some insight to what they experienced. They probably didn't endure the beatings and torture that so many others had been dealt, but with a food shortage across the country and a dislike for American Imperialism, I'm sure their experience was less than comfortable. Laura Ling said that in prison, she was fed rocks in her rice. In the book, author Mike Kim said rice is often mixed with grass to make food go farther.

If you want to see the interview that sparked my interest in this book, you can find it on the Daily Show (of all places!):

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Mike Kim
http://www.thedailyshow.com/
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Blind Korean Girl is a Genius at Piano

This melts my heart. Plus, the song she sings at the end is a very familiar one to Dillon (adoptive) families. The social workers used to sing this song to us the night before we left Korea! I could watch this over and over again!

First Person Plural: My adoption thoughts from 2000

In 2000, the National Asian American Telecommunications Association and PBS paired up to tell the personal stories of adoptees.

It was centered around a documentary called "First Person Plural". The documentary was about a Korean adoptee, Deann Borshay, and her journey back to her birth country. She came over in the 60s and had thought her birth mother was dead--that was not the case. In the end, she brought her birth family and adoptive family together.



For whatever reason, I remember being wishy-washy about this documentary. I remember feeling like it left a negative impression about adoption. Maybe that was because I had a different experience...or maybe I have a bad memory.


Anyway, the most interesting thing I found was my First Person Plural on PBS. The funny thing is that I wrote it while I was in college...there are some spelling mistakes...and at first, I was a little embarassed to share. But, then I realized that it was how I felt during one time in my life, so I thought I would share for any adoptee...this would've been right after my second trip to Korea. It was clearly an email I had written because I ask questions at the end of mine and no one responded...did PBS even read my FPP?

Pictures from the wedding!

Why knowing your biological family is cool, but hard

I have another biological sister who's getting married...this time it is my youngest sister--Yeon Jeong! She is so precious to me because she is very free-spirited. I think she's beautiful, inside and out. We spent a lot of time together during my last trip to Korea, and we couldn't stop crying when I left her at the train station. It was a very emotional goodbye.

Meeting birth family is a very difficult thing. I love mine very much, but adoptive families should know that meeting them never brings closure. If anything, it opens a whole new can of worms. I am so happy for my Korean family right now, but it is also painful to know that I cannot be there. Even though I wouldn't trade my life in the U.S. for anything, sometimes I have a hard time trying to understand why my sisters and I had to live a world apart.

Anyway, this is a happy time for our family, for both the Parks and the Sherwoods....

Plus, isn't it wild how Koreans get their wedding pictures done? Is this a hot new trend there or what? I don't know of very many men here who would dress up like this, but I love it!

The wedding is Saturday, May 19th.