Mr. Chae picked us up and we headed up a mountain to see an overview of Seoul. It's really interesting because the city is so huge, yet it is wedged between mountains. Very beautiful.
We met with a young woman, Ms. Lee. She sat us down in a private room and reviewed my file with us. Surprisingly, I had a lot of questions and still got a little emotional over the whole ordeal. I really learned a lot about times and dates. It was important to me.
- Born at 7:30 p.m. on October 13th. I never knew the time.
- Born at "Moh Ja Bo Kohn" Center, or Mother/Child Welfare Center in Busan.
- Went to a foster mother in Busan 2 days after I was born.
- Came to Seoul and transferred to another foster mother, Ms. Kim on Feb. 7.
- Ms. Kim was born in 1924 and had an elementary school aged daughter. She also took care of several children in her lifetime before dying in May of 1984 from cancer.
- On my pre-flight evaluation, dated May 1, the Holt worker wrote that I, as a baby, "babbles a lot" and "cries if someone is not around her." Go figure. Anchor-in-training?!
- My guardian in Korea was Mr. Kim (Kim, Dae Shick), the executive director of Holt. He was born in 1918. He was the one who had to officially sign off on my departure papers.
- I flew to the U.S. one day after my pre-flight evaluation, May 2,1980.
- I also learned that my birth mother had not been truthful about my relinquishment. She told the adoption agency she and my birth father had both agreed on my adoption. However, it was noted in 1998, that my birth father was surprised of my birth, let alone my adoption.
- I came to the agency on July 3, 1998. The agency contacted my birth mother...and she and my birth father arrived in Seoul at the Holt office on July 6 to see me. At that time, though, I had already headed south towards Busan. We met on July 11th.
On a happier note, I saw a really cool picture of my mom and dad (Charles and Sharon) that they had taken in the 70s and sent to the adoption agency. I had never seen that picture of them before--not even in our old photo albums. That made me teary-eyed!
So, then I asked if we could see the babies. "I know about swine flu, but could we even peek through a window?" Ms. Lee didn't think so, and told us that so many people had died in Korea. But guess what, she asked... and my persuASIAN skillz paid off. We got to do it!!
I fell in love with one little baby girl who was the youngest, but weighed the most. It was a little joke in the room among the nurses. She was such a doll, which you'll see in the video.
Afterwards, we went to the Gwangjang Market Food Alley and looked at the Cheonggyecheon Stream. Mr. Chae told us the stream was a project by current president Lee Myung-bak. Apparently, Mr. Lee helped construct the stream as Seoul's mayor... and that launched his popularity and helped win the Presidential seat.




The ranch was awesome. Jim and I had a rustic cabin... though it had all the amenities anyone would want. We had two bedrooms, a DVD player, a full kitchen, screened-in porch, grill, etc.











Mike Kim 








