holt motherland tour korea

Tour Korea Birthland Journey

Supporting adoptees and families explore personal & cultural connections in korea since 1986.

We offer personalized post adoption services, cultural expertise, and caring support to help Korean adoptees learn more about their Korean origins, culture, and people important to their birth and adoption stories.

We work with adoptees from any U.S. or Korean adoption agency who live in the U.S. We are dedicated to providing a unique and comprehensive birthland tour with post adoption services backed by years of experience.

2025 Tour Dates

Dragon tour: may 30-june 10, 2025, tiger tour: june 13-june 24, 2025, registration opens on october 1, 2024, at 8:00 a.m. (ct).

A link to register will be available on this page beginning on Tuesday, October 1.

Cost Summary & Payment Schedule

Learn more about what is and is not included in the cost of the trip, when payments are due, and our cancellation policy.

Tour Korea News & Updates

Get the latest news and updates about Tour Korea 2025. Sign up to receive updates about registration, payment schedule, and more.

A Trip to Your Birth Country Is a Unique and Treasured Journey

As you consider birthland tours, you will find that Children’s Home is best prepared and qualified to guide you on this once-in-a-lifetime trip.

• We welcome participants from across the United States, regardless of placing agency.
• This is not a typical group tour. Everyone comes to Tour Korea with the commonality of adoption. Privacy is respected, and lifelong friendships are formed.
• This Tour is adoptee-led.
• We prepare registered participants for travel through webinar and in-person orientation sessions.
• We visit and work with all four major adoption agencies in Korea — Eastern Social Welfare Society (previously Eastern Child Welfare Society), Holt Children’s Services, Korea Social Service and Korea Welfare Services (previously Social Welfare Society).
• We provide accurate, supportive, and experienced translation, as well as cultural understanding.
• We provide travelers with a variety of activity options, plenty of free time, and support group meetings throughout the tour.
• We provide participants with support services before, during, and after the tour experience.
• We are committed to providing a meaningful and significant personal journey for all travelers.

We Also Provide Additional Post Adoption Services During Tour Korea

We are happy to work with individuals and families to provide a customized travel experience.

• Arranging meetings with individuals important to an adoptee’s birth and adoption stories, including foster mothers and birth family. Visits are initiated by U.S. placing agency.
• Conducting searches, in cooperation with Korean agencies, for birth family members. (Searches are initiated by U.S. placing agency.)
• Personalizing and planning side trips for adoptees to visit places of personal significance, such as birth clinic, city of birth, orphanage, etc.

Opportunities to Discover Korea and Yourself

Tour Korea highlights the history of South Korea and offers opportunities for participants to learn more about their personal history and identity.

• The opportunity to visit adoptee’s adoption agency.
• Traditional and modern cultural performances.
• A tour of a Buddhist monastery.
• A Korean cooking class.
• Shopping and outdoor markets.
• Visits, including but not limited to: Seoul, Gwanju, Daegu, Ulsan, and Busan. 
• A ride on Korea’s subway and bullet train.
• A discussion and exchange at a single mothers’ shelter.
• A visit to the Korean War Memorial Museum.
• Adoptee and Supports nights.
• Explore a Korean traditional village.
• A trip to visit the ocean, enjoy the beach, and go swimming.

Children’s Home Staff includes : A post adoption worker, country specialist, adopted adult, and adoptive parent. We provide two pre-trip orientation meetings — in person or live via webinar — that address cross-cultural etiquette, gift-giving, post adoption services, itineraries, destination literature, and more.

Tour package includes : Hotel accommodations, daily breakfast, and most lunches and dinners; sightseeing by private motor coach and all admission fees; professional, English-speaking in-country guides; baggage handling; all group transportation; applicable Korean adoption agency visit, and support/expertise provided by Children’s Home staff and volunteers.

Tour package does NOT include : Post Adoption Services, flights to/from Korea, emergency transportation (and translation) to clinic/hospital or early return to hotel, some meals, personal purchases, and gifts. These additional costs are outlined in orientation meetings and tour materials.

Children’s Home can help you create a meaningful birthland tour experience specific to your own birth and adoption story. We provide the following post adoption services, as applicable and as information is available in the Korean file:

• Foster mother meeting : Adoptees/adoptive families meet with the person who provided you foster care before you joined your adoptive families. This meeting usually takes place at the Korean agency in a meeting conducted with an English-speaking Korean agency social worker.
• Birth family search : Using the information in the Korean agency file, a search is conducted to find an adoptee’s birth family. If the search results in a meeting, the initial meeting is scheduled by Children’s Home staff. This service is expedited as part of the tour and includes communication with birth family before and during the tour and translation of meeting(s). The cost for this service is $350 and includes a U.S. and Korean file review.
• Re-establishing previous birth relative contact : Children’s Home, in cooperation with the Korean agency, re-establishes contact with relatives and plans an initial meeting (including arrangements, translation, etc.). The cost for this service is $150. If the existing contact information is inaccurate, search fees may apply. Transportation costs are assessed as applicable. Note: This service is for adoptees already in contact with their birth families. 
• Birth clinic and/or hospital visit : Adoptees/adoptive families visit the hospital or clinic where adoptee(s) were born. This often requires a side trip where additional costs are assessed as applicable.
• Special arrangements for side trips in Korea : Children’s Home assists with visiting additional locations of personal importance not included in the tour itinerary. In some cases, side trips may require forgoing a scheduled itinerary event. Additional side trip fees apply. Side trips may be subject to a $50 cancellation fee. Children’s Home will inform travelers of transportation sode trip fees prior to departure to allow time to decide whether or not to proceed.
• File Review and Meeting : Adoptees may request a U.S. and Korean file review in advance of travel with the option to review their file at the agency in Korea, in a meeting conducted with an English-speaking Korean agency social worker. The cost for this service is $150.
• Please note the following age guidelines : File review meeting and birth family search and meeting are available to adoptees over the age of 13 for Eastern Social Welfare Society (previously Eastern Child Welfare Society) and Korea Welfare Services (previously Social Welfare Society), and over the age or 18 for Holt Children’s Services and Korea Social Service.

Read below for some of our most frequently asked questions. If you have additional questions, please contact Kelli Hanson at [email protected] .

My/my child’s adoption was not done through Children’s Home Society or Lutheran Social Service of Minnesota. Can we still travel on your tour and use the post adoption services you offer? 

Yes! Regardless of your placing agency, you may participate in Tour Korea. If you are interested, we can help coordinate post-adoption services with your US placing agency.

Besides the stated cost of the tour, what are additional costs that I can expect to incur?

In addition to the Children’s Home tour fee and the cost of your airline ticket, other expenses include:

• Korean Post Adoption Services : Fees apply to some services you may request. Please refer to the Korean Post Adoption Services section listed above.
• Gifts : Gift-giving is an integral part of Korean culture. As part of the orientation sessions, you will be given suggestions for appropriate and affordable gifts for foster parents, Korean agency workers and/or birth relatives you are arranging to meet.
• Donations : Optional monetary donations for any of the institutions you visit—the Korean adoption agency and birth mothers’ home. There is no minimum, but donations often start from $50.
• Meals : 8-10 meals are not included in the itinerary. Korean meals average $10-15 each and do not require a tip.
• Spending Money : $300–$400 per person is suggested; budget appropriately for larger purchases like a Hanbok (traditional Korean clothing), etc.
• Trip Insurance : We require Tour participants to purchase trip insurance. The cost is approximately $150 per person.
• Emergency Transportation : to clinic/hospital or an early return to the hotel.

Expenses will be addressed in detail at Tour Korea Orientation Sessions and in the Tour literature sent to all participants after registration.

What’s the average age of the adoptees who go on this tour?  What about elementary-aged children? Is this an appropriate tour for them? 

Adoptees traveling on Tour Korea typically range in age from 10 to 40. Usually, there are about the same number of Korean adopted adults on a tour as there are teenagers. Younger children have traveled as well, but most adopted youth are 13-20 years old. Occasionally an activity and the subsequent topics of discussion, such as the single mothers’ home visit, may not be appropriate for children under nine. Korean agencies enforce a minimum age requirement for post adoption services. This is explained in the Post Adoption Services application .

Past participants say that they appreciated and enjoyed traveling with adoptees of different ages—each person at a different stage in his/her adoption journey and each with a different perspective to share. Tour Korea is structured to include activities that appeal to a range of ages.

One other consideration to note : air-conditioned buses transport participants throughout the tour, but please expect to do lots of walking!

How long will it take before I know if a search for my birth family has been successful? 

Depending on the circumstances of each case, some searches can be completed more quickly than others. After you register for Tour Korea, you will receive a confirmation packet that includes Korean Post Adoption Services (PAS) registration forms. Use these forms to request a birth family search. We encourage you to complete the PAS forms and submit them at your earliest convenience, preferably, a minimum of 3-6 months in advance.

Once we receive your PAS forms, our Tour PAS case worker contacts you to clarify your service requests and talk to you about possible outcomes. The PAS case worker then formalizes your request and sends it to the appropriate agency in Korea. You can expect to hear from your PAS case worker on a monthly basis as to the progress of your case and you are welcome to call and check in.

It is always our hope to complete birthparent searches before your departure to Korea. In more difficult cases, the search continues while you are in Korea and, when possible, is completed during your trip. You are always able to request PAS at any time!

I was found and placed for adoption rather than my birthparent placing me with an agency. Can I still do a search? What post adoption services are available for me?

In this situation, the Children’s Home Tour Post Adoption Services (PAS) worker will review your file with the Korean agency to see if a search would be possible. In the case that a search is not possible (due to lack of name or Korean citizenship number available for the birth mother, or if the adoptee was originally found with no identifying information, etc.), there are other post adoption services from which you may choose. These include a visit to the clinic/site where you were born, the branch office of the agency through which you were placed, and others as applicable. To determine which service is appropriate for you, discuss your case with your PAS case worker.

I have a friend in Korea that I would like to get together with while I’m there. Can I do this on the tour?

Yes! However, we highly encourage you to participate in as many of the tour activities as possible. After all, you will have paid for them! There is scheduled free time throughout the trip as well . We welcome you to use one of these times to meet up with your friend. If you prefer to opt out of an activity on the itinerary to make time for a personal meeting, please let us know in advance.

I am an adoptee thinking of traveling alone on the tour — is this okay? 

We do not require you to travel with anyone. However, past adoptee participants have shared that they get more out of the trip and feel a greater sense of fulfillment from the experience if they are able to travel with a family member or a close friend who can provide support and encouragement.

The more emotional activities on the tour are visits to the Korean adoption agency and the single mothers’ home. But for many adoptees, this trip is the first time to return to their country of birth. Absorbing and participating in the culture—and, for many, being a part of the “ethnic majority” for the first time—can be an amazing and awesome experience. We have found there is a need not only for comfort and support but for a family member or close friend to share in new discoveries and to recognize and be part of the new information that is accessed in Korea.

Traveling with a family member or close friend is also extremely helpful upon returning to the United States when the “processing” of the trip happens. Once home, adoptees often benefit from being able to talk to someone else who shared the experience. It is difficult to explain and convey the tour experiences to someone who did not share in the travel.

Please note: If you do travel alone, there is an additional cost of $900 for single occupancy.

Do I need a special travel visa and/or immunizations to travel to Korea? 

The Korea Electronic Travel Authorization  (K-ETA) is required for foreigners who intend to enter South Korea for tourism, visiting relatives, participating in events or meetings, and business purposes other than profitable activities. You will need to apply at least one month in advance of travel. Children’s Home Tour Korea staff will inform all participants of any changes as applicable. We encourage you to review your immunization record with your doctor or travel clinic to determine if any immunizations are recommended prior to departure.

I was born in a city that is not on your itinerary, but I really want to go to that place. Can this be arranged? 

Yes. Side trips to visit a place that is important to you personally—such as your birthplace or a clinic location—can be arranged through your Children’s Home Tour Post Adoption Services (PAS) worker. The distance, form of transportation, and the number of travelers will determine any added costs for the side trip. Your PAS caseworker will inform you of the proposed date, cost, and arrangements for your side trip in advance of your departure from the U.S. so you can decide before you leave whether or not to proceed. Please note that choosing to take a side trip may require you to opt-out of a group activity on the tour itinerary.

Are siblings who were not adopted from Korea also welcome on the tour? 

Yes! In addition to Korean adoptees, Tour Korea welcomes families traveling with birth children as well as adopted children from countries other than Korea. Sometimes the Korean adoptee is a parent traveling with his/her children, or an adult traveling with a spouse, grandparent, other relatives, or a close friend.

Main Office

1605 Eustis Street Saint Paul, MN 55108 651.646.7771 800.952.9302 [email protected]

Maryland Office

401 N Washington Street 6th Floor Rockville, MD 20850 301.562.6500 [email protected]

Virginia Office

4101 Chain Bridge Road Suite 301 Fairfax, VA 22030 703.214.5533 [email protected]

We are currently seeking adult chaperones for our Youth Retreat on October 11-13, 2024 . Learn more here .

Tim’s Story

I was born in Korea in 1964. My birth mother was 16 years old and my father was a young medical worker with the United Nations. Upon learning of her pregnancy my birth-mother went to live with her grandfather in the countryside. I was raised by my birth-mother’s grandfather until I was 2 years old.

In 1966, I was sent to Holt Orphanage in Seoul like most mixed race children who were born after the war; we were abandoned by nearly everyone: by our foreign birth fathers who rarely remained in Korea; by our Korean birth-mothers who endured ostracism and social stigma; and by the Korean government which endorsed a politics of racial purity and sought to expel mixed-race children from the public eye, hide us in orphanages and promote international adoption as a way to try and cover up the shame they felt.

It was not until 1967 that interracial marriage was made legal by the US supreme court. I have often wondered that if this ruling had been made earlier, say before the war, would some of the USA soldiers have actually married the Korean women they left behind?

1967 also happens to be the year that I was adopted by Pastor and Mrs. James Larson of Hood River, Oregon. My adoptive parents already had 5 biological children and were led to support Harry Holt’s mission of finding homes for Korean orphans based on their Christian faith. I would become the first of 10 children my parents would eventually adopt from various races, ages, and backgrounds. I have always felt a deep gratitude for the sacrifices my adopted parents made to give me a new life.

Growing up in a mixed race family in the late 60’s and early 70’s era in the USA was not without its challenges. We lived in a small town and to most people we were an oddity. We were kind of a mash-up of the Brady Bunch and Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner. I think generally, the fact my father was a fairly prominent pastor in the region made it more acceptable to most folks who were inclined to think we did not really belong. We had to endure the requisite comments like “where are you from?”, “North or South Korea?”, “Do you speak English?’, “Do you speak Korean?”, “Do your parents have their own kids?”, “You are so lucky your parents saved you”, “You don’t look Korean” and so on. I was on the receiving end of a lot of racism – name calling and exclusion. Neither my ethnicity, nor my heritage were reflected in the way I grew up. I felt I didn’t belong anywhere.

This perceived isolation was my main psychological challenge growing up. I was always searching to find some kind of connection to an ethnic identity and to some extent cultural identity. My parents meant well and did their very best but lacked an understanding of the importance of ethnic identity. My parents, like many of this era felt that a loving family, faith in God and “being an American” was all that was needed and fitting in was simply a matter of conformity and socialization. I remember the big celebration we had around my US citizenship. I was officially American in nationality…but not in ethnicity. I certainly felt American since I knew nothing else but I was constantly reminded that I did not look American. I also lacked a connection to my Korean ethnicity since I was mixed race. The comment I heard often that I did not look Korean always stuck with me because being Korean was the thing I craved the most. If I did not look Korean and I did not look American, what was I?

I consciously hid my resentment and bitterness because I felt sincerely grateful to my parents and did not want them to think they had somehow failed. Only occasionally did this chip on my shoulder boil to the surface but for the most part I was successful in repressing these feelings. I think most people would tell you that I appeared like a pretty well-adjusted kid.

I was fortunate enough to have had older adopted brothers who were also mixed-race Koreans. My brothers helped give me confidence in who I was and made me proud of being Asian but I still felt ethnically disconnected. My brothers were adopted at an older age and had suffered through tremendous hardships as mixed race orphans in Korea. They both spoke fluent Korean and I was always jealous that they could have “secret” conversations. Neither of them looked Korean so it was amusing to see the surprise on the faces of other Koreans when they spoke. They’re both very tough kids having survived living on the streets of Korea. There were many times that they came to my defense growing up. They were both black belts in Taekwondo and in the Larson house…everybody was Kung-fu fighting. They’re tough guy reputations served me well growing up and were enough to make a few would-be bullies think twice about starting fights or using racial slurs.

There were very few Asian role models during my formative years, besides Bruce Lee and Sulu from Star Trek. Most people thought I was Mexican and for a long time I was offended by that. I had my own brief moments of a racial superiority, learning from a conditioning that in the racial pecking order Asians may not be better than whites but surely we were superior to Mexicans. Shameful and ironic for a kid lacking in racial identity. I have since embraced my “otherness” and am proud to be mistaken for being Hispanic, Filipino, Indian, etc.

The tipping point for me came in 1983 when I was able to visit Korea for the first time. I was 17 and participated in one of the original Holt sponsored “ Motherland Tours”. This visit to Korea and the relationships I made with other Korean adoptees would change my life forever. I gained a keeper appreciation for the identity struggles of others and this became a common bond with many of my new found friends. I was also able to discover some details about my birth-mother and the circumstances around my brief time as an orphan. While I did not have any memories of Korea as a child, going back was hauntingly familiar to me. My time in Korea and my fellowship with other adoptees was a revelation. I gained a new self-confidence and self-esteem. My feelings of ethnic displacement were replaced by feelings of belonging and inclusion. I belonged with this group. These were my people; my tribe.

Once I returned from Korea, I started volunteering as a camp counselor for Holt’s Korean Heritage camps. These camps were designed to help adopted kids connect to their ethnicity and build relationships within the community of adoptees. I have formed life-long bonds with these kids and with the other adoptees from both the heritage camps and from the heritage tours.

It was from this connection to Holt that I met Julie, Tami, Katy, Anita, and Barb….all amazing women who make up the board of Love Beyond the Orphanage. We all share a common vision to support our brothers and sisters who remain in Korea, who have aged-out of the orphanages without being adopted and who now face enormous challenges to transition into independent life.

It has been a long journey to turn that adolescent chip on my shoulder into a spirit of gratitude. I have my community of adopted friends and family to thank for this.

In 2002, my wife, my two sons and I traveled back to Korea to bring home our adopted daughter Emily. Our family is now complete and we are so grateful for her. She will grow up knowing who she is from the very beginning surrounded by her tribe of adopted Korean Aunts and Uncles.

As I look to the future, I am hopeful that attitudes of Korean acceptance for orphans will change and that adult orphans will be fully accepted and not ostracized or shunned. I will continue to work toward helping to change hearts and minds through education and leadership. I am very proud to be on the board of the Love Beyond the Orphanage.

Korean Adoptee Resource Hub

Motherland tours.

Many organizations, both run by adoptees and otherwise, offer tours of South Korea, often referred to as motherland tours, to adoptees. Tours frequently occur in the summer, and in some cases require application rather than simple registration.

Adoptee Bridge – Bridge to Korea Birthland Tours

Asia Families – Korea Bridge Tours

InKAS – InKAS Korea Tour

Me & Korea – Mosaic Tour

The Ties Program – Adoptive Family Travel

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Seoul Sisters and Brothers

When they met for the first time, Tamara Miller and Leslie Wheeler were struck by their similarities. They b oth are Korean adoptees, and both share a cheerful disposition and closets full of colorful hats and clothes. They even carried nearly identical purses at that first meeting.

Leslie, left, and Tamara .

Though they were strangers, the two share the same birth mother. And beyond all the uncanny things they had in common, the sisters noticed a deeper connection right off: an immediate sense of sisterhood and love. 

“ You wouldn’t know that siblings could be so similar just through blood,” said Tamara. 

She was stunned by all she had in common with her newfound sister, and yet “we couldn’t have been raised more differently or led more different lives,” she said.

Soldier Fathers

The sisters never met as children, and now, with children of their own, they’re making up for lost time and filling in the blanks in their family story. Their story is reminiscent of 23andMe stories from other Korean adoptees.

Tamara’s birth father, Harry Andrews, with her and Leslie’s birth mother.

Both of their fathers had served in the Army in Korea. 

Leslie was living with her grandmother when Tamara was born. Leslie’s father was white, while Tamara’s father was an African American GI. The family was poor and already struggling to make ends meet. Tamara was placed in an orphanage and adopted as an infant. Leslie’s adoption happened much later.

“I had a hard life in Korea,” she said. “The country was poor and we were starving. It was a miracle if we ate two meals a day. Going to school was really hard. I just didn’t fit in with the Korean kids because I was so different looking. I was a little girl living in a country that wasn’t accepting of half-American kids.” 

Leslie had lived with their mother and her American soldier father until the age of 2. When he returned to America, saying he’d come back for them. Then she lived with her mother and relatives until her mother passed away. Leslie was adopted by an American family at the age of 13.

A Short History of Adoptions from Korea

The sisters’ story is part of a wave of orphaned and mixed-race Korean children adopted after the Korean War by American families. Now well into adulthood, many of these adoptees have turned to DNA testing. They hope to learn more about their cultural roots, and in some cases connect with biological family.

Tamara as an infant in Korea.

International adoptions didn’t really begin in the US until the Displaced Persons Act of 1948 , which allowed orphans from WWII admission to the US for permanent residence. But it wasn’t until 1955, and the Bill for Relief of Certain War Orphans, that large scale international adoptions — initially from Korea — to the US were possible. Today China is the main hub of international adoption. But for at least 40 years most international adoptions originated in Korea, with at least 200,000 children adopted worldwide. That only lessened in the late 1980s after Korea began limiting the number of children who could be adopted out of the country.

Holt International

Early on in the United States, it was standard practice for many families to Americanize their adopted child as quickly as possible. That often meant cutting them off from their cultural roots. Thus many generations of adoptees were estranged from their cultural heritage and had very little if any information about their birth families.

A photo of Leslie before her adoption.

With the hindsight of more than half a century of adoptions from Korea, the groups that handled many of these adoptions now see the importance of these cultural and family connections, said Susan Soonkeum Cox, Vice President of Policy & External Affairs at Holt International Children’s Services , an adoption agency that helps American families adopt children from outside the United States, including Korea. The couple who originally started Holt, Harry and Bertha Holt, were also instrumental in passing the Bill for Relief of Certain War Orphans.

“We (now) have the benefit of several generations of adoptees,” said Soonkeum Cox, a Korean adoptee herself. “We’ve come to be aware that a child’s history, where they’re from and their beginning. (It) is very much a part of who they are as they go throughout their lifetime.”

Reconnecting with Korean Ancestry

That desire to connect has expanded the services Holt now offers. The agency assists with family reunification, “motherland tours” of Korea, and Korean culture education. In particular, Holt offers “heritage camps,” where adoptees can learn more about the Korean language, dance and cuisine and discuss issues of identity. Other organizations like Me and Korea also provide adoptees with opportunities to learn more about Korean culture, connect with fellow adoptees and travel to Korea as well. In addition, Holt and some other agencies assist adoptees over the age of 18 with finding more paper records and other information about their birth and adoptions, sometimes even connecting them with biological family.

But frequently because of the nature of some of these early adoptions or the lack of a clear paper record, DNA is the only option for learning more. As companies like 23andMe have grown, so too have the chances of adoptees finding relatives . The nonprofit 325 Kamra even distributes DNA kits to Koreans and Korean adoptees worldwide, to try to help Korean adoptees find family. And then there are Facebook groups like the KAD 23andme Results Group , where Korean adoptees can share their results, questions, and concerns. 

Other Korean Adoptee Stories

Embracing testing has resulted in a wave of stories like Tamara’s and Leslie’s.

Justin and Renee.

Most recently a pair of sisters adopted from Korea found each other through 23andMe, and learned they grew up just 30 minutes from each other in Michigan. 23andMe also helped reunite identical twins Amanda and Katey . Born in Seoul, and adopted by different American families, the sisters, both in their 30s, connected for the first time after using 23andMe.

Another pair of sibling adoptees from Korea, Justin and Renee , were also well into adulthood before finding each other. Justin had been abandoned on the steps of a theater in Seoul, when he was a toddler. The next day, his sister Renee, who was 5 at the time, was left at a market. They reunited 30 years later on Justin’s 36th birthday. And testing has helped others simply clear up mysteries. For example, another pair of sisters adopted together from Korea, grew up not knowing for sure that they were related. 23andMe confirmed that they indeed were biological sisters .

Tamara and Leslie

Although they all share a connection to Korea, each story is unique. 

For Leslie and Tamara, the story isn’t just about sisters connecting, but also about coming to terms with their mixed ancestry, and filling in the gaps of their family history. They were able to find each other because Leslie’s son, Noelin Wheeler, had tested and matched with Tamara on 23andMe. Leslie didn’t even know she had a sister until Noelin, a tattoo artist known for his appearance on SpikeTV’s show Ink Master , found Tamara.

Leslie and her son Noelin.

When Noelin texted his mom Tamara’s photo, she immediately knew they were related.

“I looked at Tamara and felt like I was staring at my mother,” Leslie said.

The two have been able to meet each others’ families and spend time with each other. They’ve become a part of each other’s lives, seeing each other a couple times a year and talking weekly. 

“Leslie has given me a sense of identity,” said Tamara. “As an orphan you don’t always know why you are the way you are, why you think or react the way you do. Now I understand myself better.” 

These last three years, in particular, have been especially life changing for Tamara. Not only did she find Leslie, last year she found five paternal siblings, all of whom ended up living close to her. She enjoys spending time with them regularly, as well.

“Generations of people have been brought together as a result of these DNA tests, and all of our lives have been enriched,” said Tamara.

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Holt Motherland Tour 1987

Looking back, fracturing the orphan tale.

By A.D. Herzel

The return flight was most memorable. A six-month-old boy slept in my lap for 18 hours, never crying once. He was not my baby and legally no longer belonged to the woman who gave birth to him. On many papers signed by governments and agencies on opposite sides of the world, he belonged to a family in the United States. I was 19, and my thoughts and memories reeled back and forth through time. I reflected upon the experiences and challenges I had encountered as an Asian adoptee in America, and I wondered about the known and unknown possibilities his future would hold. As I thought about his journey to the other side of the world, I silently cried. Did anyone notice? No one said a word. My tears fell on and off through the course of the long night. We were flying together in limbo, he and I leaving one home on the way to another, though I felt neither place was truly ours to claim. Was this only my story? Would it be his too?

In the summer of 1987, after I completed my first year of college, my adoptive parents generously sent me on the Holt Motherland tour. Holt international was an Evangelical Christian adoption agency founded by Harry Holt and his wife, Bertha, in 1953. Harry Holt is credited with creating the logistic and legal pathway for the intercountry adoption of Korean children to families in the United States. The Motherland tour was an effort by the Holt organization to create an opportunity for adult Korean adoptees to learn about their Korean heritage and visit their “homeland.”

I did not ask to go on the tour, but when it was offered, I readily accepted. Growing up in the 1970s and 1980s, I didn’t have much access to Korean culture. My parents were not the kind who celebrated or shared the beauty and culture of the country I and my two adopted siblings had come from. I recall meeting Bertha Holt on two occasions at large gatherings when I was very young. The evangelical church community my adoptive parents belonged to recruited new members throughout the suburbs of Long Island, New York. The church members adopted roughly 100 Korean children. I have a picture in my mind of us all posed in a hall with Bertha wearing a hanbok . Somewhere on Long Island, in a box of my now-deceased parents’ photos, it may be hidden.

Unlike most Korean adoptees dispersed into the white American population, I was raised among many other Korean adoptees and their families. When my parents’ church devolved into a conservative, Sephardic, Kabbalistic, messianic cult, I was in first grade. I was told we do not pray to Jesus anymore. Two of my brothers and I were put in its private religious school until sixth grade, where half of the children in my class were Korean adoptees.

Yet we never talked about being adopted. My best friend was a Korean adoptee, as was her sister. My adopted siblings and I talked quietly, privately, about many things, but never about our lives before adoption or our families on the other side of the world. We, according to my adoptive mother, were God’s will in her life, her mission. Thus, I was named Amy Doreen—beloved “gift of God.” Amy is a common name among Korean adoptees. When I was a child, I imagined it made me special. As a teenager, I held on to the name of “love,” hoping if I embodied it, it would come to me.

As I grew up, I came to find the name silly and ill-fitting. Amys were pretty, sweet, and bubbly. Cherished, they were something that was not me. Inside, and occasionally outside, I was mean, cutting with words, hungry, lonely, awkward, uncomfortable in my skin, angry, and always afraid. I cursed myself, as I was cursed at, and felt cursed. Being “God’s gift” was always a chain.

In a recent interview with an adoptee, she reminded me of my past self. I had forgotten the feeling of my anger, my self-hate. Though I spent my elementary school years in a religious bubble where I did not think about my race, when I was in my home, my neighborhood, and when I finally went to public school in seventh grade, I was harassed, afraid, and I hated being Asian. I cringed at the sight of another Asian in public or on tv. I was ashamed of being part of the denigrated class. I was taught at home that Asians were stupid and ugly and weak. Was I made fun of? Of course, this was the 70s.

After learning the breakdown of my DNA, I was reminded of having been taunted with “Chinese, Japanese, dirty knees, look at these!” I used to say, “I am Korean, stupid,” with fury and fear bubbling inside. The kids never knew what or where Korea was.  But now I know. I am Chinese and Japanese and Korean. I knew it never really mattered. The truth was always clear. I was more interested in being invisible or at least visible on my own terms. It would take me decades before I even knew what my own terms were. This was never possible within my adoptive family or within the upper-middle-class Long Island suburbs where I grew up. I escaped Long Island and my adoptive parents’ home at the end of college and returned only for major family events.

My Motherland Tour shifted many things. The American spell of my “minority self”—”ugly, powerless, and unworthy”—broke when I saw the beauty of the landscape and the masses of people and witnessed the culture. It was an awakening that some Korean adoptees have, but not all. The tour helped create a space for “Korean pride”—a long well-guarded taboo. It was also the first time I actually spoke about the nature of my adoptive family struggles with fellow adoptees. How many tears were shed? How many cheap Korean cigarettes were smoked at Il San Orphanage, sitting around Harry Holt’s gravestone? No one understood. Counselors might have been helpful. Alcohol, cigarettes, tears, and late-night confidences carried us through the two-week tour—“orphans” once more figuring things out on our own. Seven of us were close in age and created an odd “Breakfast Club.” It was a strange brief enlightenment and a respite for those of us not wanting to return to the families that sent us. We would all return to our respective states—Tennessee, Minnesota, Wisconsin, South Dakota, California, Kansas, New Jersey, and New York—after sorely straining the nerves of the late Dr. David Kim, the former director of Holt International Children’s services.

The most profound stop for me on our tour was Holt’s unwed mother’s home. I do not remember the inside or anything I saw. I only remember being doubled over outside the building bawling my eyes out, finally having a complete emotional breakdown. I do not have memories of any words from the moment. A geyser of sorrow had broken free and I no longer had the will to fight it. The unwed mother’s home was considered progress—something Holt International was proud of. Dr. Kim always told us his dream was that adoptees would end up running Holt. I wonder how he interpreted all the tears and wailing sobs elicited by these annual tours.

As our tour bus obliviously rode through the South Korean peninsula, the June 1987 Democratic uprising was occurring. The demonstrations led to a democratic election and other reforms as well as the Great Workers’ Struggle , which was marked by the largest and most effective union organizing and walkouts in South Korean history. One night, our bus was stuck in the demonstration traffic, and several people were sickened by the tear gas that floated through the windows. The political struggle for Korean democracy was not on the Holt Motherland Tour cultural menu, so context was never given.

At 19 and older, had we grown up on the peninsula with or without our unknown birth parents, we likely would have been part of, or greatly invested in, the outcomes of the crowds on the streets.

Instead, we were buying tourist trinkets in Itaewon. “ Eol meyeyoh ? How much?” and “ Kamsa hamneda , thank you,” were the pillars of our Korean language acquisition. My American freedom had already been bought by the war, by my adoption. I had not grown enough to truly protest with my fellow Koreans. In Korea, I was an “orphan” in an American wrapper, envied and looked down upon. In America, I was an American in a Korean wrapper, a dirty import.

Time has passed. The first experiments have grown up. The adoptee outcomes from the first   wave of Korean adoptees and my subsequent generation resulted from prescriptions of assimilation and religious charity. Though research is scant and belated, it showed what many of us have privately known. A study by the Evan B Donaldson institute I participated in, reported by the New York Times in 2009 , showed that 78% of Korean adoptees identified as white or wanting to be white. It also documented that, “as adults, nearly 61 percent said they had traveled to Korea both to learn more about the culture and to find their birth parents.” This shows us; the majority of adoptees assimilate and displace their identity with that of their foreign families, and that their innate identity is still almost equally important. Intercountry adoption and many forms of adoption demand the “erasure” of a life and identity prior to placement in the foreign environment, but identity can only be controlled by external forces for so long.

Revolution and a way to culture, identity, and citizenship reclamation is still being paved by adoptees born after me. According to data culled from US State Department reports by William Robert Johnston and the Johnston archives, only 4,400 Korean children were adopted the US in the 1960s. During the 70s, 25,247 Korean children were recorded as adopted to the US, and during the 80s, the number rose to 46,254. A small fraction of these younger and older adoptees would move back to Korea, search for birth families, and demand accountability from adoption agencies, the government, and their birth families. With the rise of the Internet and DNA technology, these numbers appear to be increasing, though they have yet to be measured.

Unceasingly, these same demands have been and will be replayed by every adoptee who understands what it means to ask for their rights as defined by the UN Rights of the Child Agreement . (The United States is one of the few countries that has not ratified, and does not subscribe to, the Rights of the Child Agreement.) Thus, our work continues: supporting Korean adoptees, making community, creating birth search and reunion resources, and sharing our stories in writing and through the arts. Today, adoptees are fortunate to find a varied handful of Korean adoptee-centered organizations, podcasts, and magazines online among them: ICAV , IKAA , AKA , KAMRA325 , GOA’L , Adoptee Hub , the Adapted Podcast,  and The Universal Asian .

When my return flight landed at JFK airport with the other HOLT 1987 Motherland Tour members, I was brought to meet the family waiting for the baby I carried. My service as an escort paid for my plane trip back to the US. I do not remember the name they gave him. I recall the family—white, with perhaps two older daughters. I may have intentionally not wanted to remember them. I had not wanted to give him up. I had not wanted to give him to them. I gave him up knowing, whether they were kind or not, the road could be difficult. America was uniquely hard on Asian boys. He would have questions they could not answer, desires for self-knowledge they could not fulfill, and my heart was inadequate and broken. I was still inadequate and broken.

I hope he was fine, was loved, was fairly treated, found pride, self-acceptance, friends, and self-love. He should be 34 now and still on the journey that never ends, reconciling the before and after, the with and without. My best hope is that he was one of those adoptees who was able to be proud and have an easy knowledge of his Korean cultural heritage and identity. What I could not do for him then is what I do now—share as much as I can and show what I am able.

And to him I say, “If you are out there looking for a friend on the road or the mule that carried you to America, here I am.”

미안해  Biahnay

I am sorry.

A.D. Herzel was “found” in 1968 in Hari, Yeouju eup, South Korea, and brought to the U.S. in 1970.  She is a Korean American adoptee, visual artist, writer, and educator who has exhibited work nationally for the past 20 years. Trained as a painter and printmaker at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, she also earned her M.Ed. in art education from the Tyler School of Art.  Her current project, titled  Seeds from the East: The Korean Adoptee Portrait Project , will be shown in multiple venues in 2022-2023. These exhibits are scheduled for the Philip Jaisohn Memorial House in Media, PA, and the Eleanor D. Wilson Museum at Hollins University in Roanoke, VA. She’s working with Adoptee Hub for an exhibit in Minnesota, and plans are in the works for shows in Oregon and, possibly, Boston. She is also a regular arts contributor to The Universal Asian , which describes itself as an open and safe online database platform in a magazine-style to provide inspiration to Asian adoptees (#importedAsians) and immigrated Asians (#hyphenatedAsians) around the world. Learn more about her work here . Find her on Instagram @pseudopompous.

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Dillon currently has a search process in place for the countries of South Korea. We offer counseling for anyone who is pursuing a search for birth family in our Tulsa office regardless of country.

Counseling is offered to individuals, families and couples. To set up an initial free 15-minute telephone consultation with one of our adoption professionals, please call (918) 749-4600.

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Finding support with others that understand is important at any age.  Not feeling alone, being with others that can relate, and getting education from adoption professionals is all a focus in our support groups.

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Korea heritage tours.

Dillon has been honored to have some amazing Korea Tour leaders over the years enhancing the personal experience of participants. This past summer, Dukkyung Um, and Katie Speicher spent a month in Korea helping over 60 tour participants navigate travel, receive a rich experience of the Korean culture, and provide a safe space to process with people who understand the complexities of an adoption-related tour. Dukkyung and Katie are considering moving forward with creating future tours for adoptees and adoptive families.

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Other Korea Tours:

Bridge to Korea Birthland Tours: https://www.adopteebridge.org/bridge-to-korea-birthland-tours

Me and Korea: https://meandkorea.org/

Holt International: https://www.holtinternational.org/travel/

Adoptive Family Travel: https://www.adoptivefamilytravel.com/asia/korea

Asia Families: https://www.asiafamilies.org/korea-tour

Children’s Home Society of Minnesota: https://chlss.org/tourkorea/

Seoul Sisters Tours: https://www.seoulsisterstours.com/adoptee--family-tours.html

Barker Adoption Foundation: https://www.barkeradoptionfoundation.org/adoption-services/family-post-adoption-services/korea-homeland-tour

China Heritage Tours

China Educational Tours: https://www.chinaeducationaltours.com/tour/china-heritage-tour.htm

Adoptive Family Travel: https://www.adoptivefamilytravel.com/asia/china

Legacy Journey: https://www.legacyjourney.org/

Lotus Travel: http://www.lotustours.net/travel/for_American.html

The Park: https://theparkcommunity.org/heritagetours/

Motherland Travel: https://motherlandtravel.com/heritage-journeys/china-heritage-journey/

Barker Adoption Foundation: https://www.barkeradoptionfoundation.org/barker-homeland-tour

Guatemala Heritage Tours

Adoptive Family Travel: https://www.adoptivefamilytravel.com/latin-america/guatemala

Our Guatemalal: https://www.facebook.com/p/Our-Guatemala-Travel-with-Purpose-100054482769057/

India Heritage Tours

Adoptive Family Travel: https://www.adoptivefamilytravel.com/asia/india

Catalyst Foundation: https://catalystfoundation.org/cultural-tour/#:~:text=Catalyst%20Foundation's%20%E2%80%9CVietnam%20Cultural%20Tour,Catalyst%20Foundation%20Vietnam%20Culture%20Camp.

Adoptive Family Travel: https://www.adoptivefamilytravel.com/asia/vietnam

Lotus Tours: http://www.lotustours.net/travel/heritage/vietnam/VietnamTour1A.shtml

Motherland Travel: https://motherlandtravel.com/vietnam/

America's Korean Adoptees, Part 4: Return To The Motherland

by Sarah Idzik

Mark, a 50-year-old Korean adoptee from Chicago, has an impressive display of facial hair: a full moustache and beard, something you don’t see that often on Korean men. (My brother, who, like me, is a Korean adoptee, has tried this before and gotten a woefully undergrown result.) When he was preparing for his first trip back to South Korea, Mark struggled with what to do about his facial hair. In homogenous Korean society, he knew that the beard would be “a big deal.” Should he make life easier and shave it, or stay true to himself and keep it? It was, as it turned out, a profound decision, one that would set the tone for his entire relationship with his birth country. So what did he do?

“I decided to keep my facial hair,” he said, “even though I knew it would be weird.” The result was much as he expected: “They stared at me constantly,” he said. “Everyone assumed I was Japanese.”

Not every adoptee chooses to return to his birth country for a visit, but such trips have become increasingly common in recent years. For many it’s an undeniable rite of passage — one that’s often difficult. Kathleen, a 24-year-old adoptee from upstate New York, described her trip back to Korea as “not a vacation. It feels like work.” Mark said, “It’s an intense experience” no matter how prepared you think you are. The first trip back for an adoptee is so much more than taking an east Asian sabbatical: it’s a point of no return. The decision to brave the journey is a choice to consciously confront the reality of your dual existence: an acknowledgment that despite your thoroughly American upbringing, this completely different world is somehow still tied to you.

“I came from this place. I spent the first six months of my life in this country, with these people, in these hospitals, eating this food,” Kathleen said of the realization she had during her trip. Eleana Kim, an aassistant professor of anthropology at the University of Rochester and author of Adopted Territory: Transnational Korean Adoptees and the Politics of Belonging , said that as an adoptee back in Korea for the first time, you often wonder “whether or not the people you’re passing on the street could be your relatives.” It can be, she said, “really destabilizing” to experience such a shock to “a life and an identity that was [previously] not questioned.”

At its best, the trip can help an adoptee piece together parts of a cultural identity that they may have felt was missing. As Caroline, a 24-year-old adoptee who teaches English in Korea, wrote me, it can fill in “a little bit of the hole that I think a lot of adoptees have.” Soo, who is also 24, remembers feeling “a little more mature” after her first trip back. Taken when she was ten years old, the trip gave her “a better understanding of where I came from.”

Paul Kim, who directs programs in Korea, Mongolia and Nepal for the adoption agency Holt International, explained to me that gaining more of an understanding of their birth country is an empowering experience that leads many adoptees to gain “a sense of understanding and pride, and a greater sense of self.” Holt operates Motherland Tours to Korea for adoptees, and Mr. Kim said that adoptees often contact Holt afterwards to ask about other opportunities to return to Korea.

Disconnection And Disillusionment Cultural misunderstandings are a part of travel, but when you’re an adoptee in your birth country these issues are amplified. Take language. One of the first Korean phrases Heather, an adoptee from Baltimore, learned before her visit was “I don’t speak Korean.” Nobody believed her. And Caroline said that Koreans actually seemed to disapprove of her inability to speak the language.

Then there’s the sensation, sometimes as disconcerting as it is heady, of finding oneself a part of the majority. Ms. Kim described the process as having two stages: first, the relief at finally blending in, followed by the realization that “I can’t communicate with them. As soon as I open my mouth, they know I’m not one of them.”

The biggest source of disconnection comes from the responses of Koreans when they realize they’re talking to an adoptee. Envy is one facet: according to Ms. Kim, many Koreans envy adoptees because they were able to get on the “fast track to assimilation.” (Heather was told by some Koreans during her stay that she “was so lucky that I was adopted because my English was perfect.”)

Pity is also a common response. Steve, an adoptee from Nashville, said that while he didn’t feel shamed for his ignorance of the language and culture during his visit, “bringing up the adopted thing more often triggers a kind of pity response, which is awful in its own way.” Heather, who “actually had people apologize” to her for her adoption, knew adoptees who had gotten free meals or gifts from Koreans, perhaps because, she hypothesized, Korean cultural pride leads to collectivist Korean guilt. In fact, she rarely divulged her adoptee status because she “didn’t want them to feel sorry for me. I would occasionally get the pity face after I said that. And I hate that shit.”

Then there are the problems of cultural difference. Mark, my new, impressively bearded friend, found himself disillusioned by what he deemed a “really, really, really conformist” Korean culture. The facial hair, his Western appearance, the fact that he is gay, and his age — in his 40s for all three of his trips to Korea, well past the time he likely would have been married as a cultural Korean — all led him to being treated as an “outsider.” “I felt so alienated by Korea each time,” he said. “There is no space in South Korean culture for being different.” He described Koreans as determinedly uniform, both aesthetically — including the omnipresent double-eyelid surgery for women — and socially, an environment that makes it near impossible for adoptees to, as he put it, “get in.” He once met a Scandinavian adoptee who had done everything to fully assimilate in Korean culture, but Mark insists that the jig will be up when she gets a boyfriend and meets his family. “The family will reject her like that, because she’s an adoptee,” he said. He was also disappointed by what he perceived to be an intolerant and restrictive culture. “In Korea,” he told me, “[saying] ‘people will talk’ is like [saying] you boil babies and eat them for breakfast.”

Kathleen, who traveled with Mark on a 2006 tour with the Korean American Adoptee Adoptive Family Network (KAAN), met similar problems. Korean women are very thin, she told me, and at a healthy but non-size-two weight, she was subjected to a lot of unwanted attention. The worst moment was when an elderly man told her she needed to exercise during a tour of her adoption agency. “It was so incredibly offensive, and it was so hurtful,” she said, that she’s not sure when she wants to return to Korea, if at all.

Idealizing your birth country is a dangerous proposition for an adoptee, and coming up against its reality can lead to some painful revelations and disappointments. It’s hurtful to feel rejected by the hallowed country of your birth for simply being … well, you. “The real problem,” Steve said, “is when a place has symbolic value, and is nothing but a myth. When you idealize something so much without ever seeing it or experiencing it, that can be very dangerous.” When I confided that one of the factors preventing me from seriously contemplating visiting Korea was my fear that I just won’t like my own birth country, a somewhat traumatic idea for me, he said, “That would be healthy! I think I realized I could never live there. And that’s a good thing. That’s a kind of closure.” Though he wants to go back, he realized that he “can’t go back there and reclaim something that isn’t there to be reclaimed. And I had to go there to realize it wasn’t there.”

As for returning to Korea, Heather told me she “would go [back] in a heartbeat.” “It was seriously one of the best decisions I’ve ever made,” she said. But not all adoptees connect as strongly, or even at all, with their birth country: To Kathleen, Korea was “a huge, unwelcoming, foreign place” that effectively alienated her. While Kathleen and Mark recommend that every adoptee take the trip back to Korea, neither of them really wishes to return.

Meeting Your Birth Mother Another major element often thrown into these already turbulent trips is the birth family search. This is a “huge question for many adoptees,” Mark told me. “Imagine the intensity, and then cube it.” It’s a major decision and, as Mr. Kim said, “a door that, once opened, you can’t close again.” How far are you willing to go? This isn’t just some long-lost or estranged relative: this is the woman who gave birth to you , who then, for whatever reason, gave you up for adoption. What would your life have been like with her if you’d never left? Who would you have become?

Understandably, plenty of adoptees decide they’re not ready. Mark is among them. “It might be really traumatic, you know?” he said. “People don’t just give up their babies for no reason.” Soo also decided against a birth family search and doesn’t regret it. Only ten when she made the trip, “I wouldn’t have fully grasped the gravity of making that choice.”

For Kathleen, her reunion with her birth mother was not quite the warm and happy meeting she had imagined. She had friends on the tour who had wonderful reunions with their birth mothers, and she found herself disappointed by the reality of her own encounter. Her mother was a no-show for their first scheduled meeting, and when they finally did meet up, “she was kind of a diva,” Kathleen said. And though presents weren’t expected, she had presented her birth mother with a gift and not received one in return. Basically, Kathleen said, “I didn’t particularly like her.”

But the door had been opened. Once Kathleen returned to the United States her birth mother started calling. Even though they couldn’t communicate because of the language barrier, she called every day for two weeks. Her family finally had to take the phone off the hook.

When Heather’s adoption agency contacted her while she was in Korea to say they had located her birth mother, she was stunned. “I couldn’t believe it,” she said. “I had honestly never expected to find her.” When they finally met at her adoption agency, “it was emotional. There was just so much sobbing. I had no idea what to expect, but it was a really positive experience.” Heather’s adoptive parents were even able to visit, meeting with her birth family for an emotional meal. The only thing that makes Heather sad is that her birth mother feels guilty about giving her up; her birth mother remarried, but, having given up Heather and her sister, she felt she “didn’t deserve any more” children. Heather told me that “there is certainly a sense of closure” now that she’s reunited with her birth mother, but that it also had raised a host of other questions. Before her birth mother had been an abstract concept. Now she has a real-life form.

Steve has never tried to meet his birth mother, and “basically has nothing to go on.” Do you wish you could? I asked. “Of course. In a way it’s easier to compartmentalize, because it’s a dead end. But yes, part of me will always wonder. How could you not?”

All Aboard The Orphan Bus “Motherland tours.” The name sounds antiquated, even creepy, conjuring images of a state-sponsored journey through a falsely idyllic Korea, with scenes engineered to welcome long lost sons and daughters back into the fold. Yet while this is not an entirely false perception, the consensus among the adoptees I talked to was that if you want to travel back to Korea, a motherland tour is one of the best ways to do it.

A motherland tour typically consists of a large group of adoptees, with or without their families, traveling to Korea accompanied by staff and guides. It’s a package tour, and the itinerary usually includes visits to important sites and places of interests, with stops at adoption agencies and the possibility of a birth family search.

Tons of organizations run them, both in the United States and Korea, although the tours haven’t been around that long. Adoptees didn’t start going back to Korea in significant numbers until the early ’90s. Strangely, one reason for the increase in interest was a series of negative stories in the media scrutinizing the country’s adoption practices. During the 1988 Olympics in Seoul, NBC’s Bryant Gumbel reported on Korea’s baby “exportation” industry, claiming that the country’s babies were also its primary export commodity. The ethical questions surrounding Korean adoption received more attention with The Progressive ’s unapologetically titled essay “ Babies for sale. South Koreans make them, Americans buy them ,” and a New York Times article published shortly thereafter, which characterized adoption in Korea as a well-run business — and a national source of shame for Korea. But even negative press brings heightened awareness. The first motherland tours catered mostly to adult adoptees, but over time, “tourism has evolved in response to customer demand, as it were,” said Ms. Kim. Nowadays, adoptees’ families, wanting to share the experience of a birth country visit with their children, are often the ones initiating the trips.

“It’s a very safe way to introduce adoptees who had never been to Korea to the place,” Ms. Kim said to me. She means “safe” in more than one sense. The tours provide logistical guidance, support, translation services and the comfort of traveling in numbers — all immensely valuable to anyone visiting a new country for the first time. But there’s another component as well. As Soo said to me, “These trips have the potential to get heavy,” and many adoptees value the emotional support found on a group tour. It means they’re not alone on the intense emotional rollercoaster that often marks the experience. “I purposefully went alone the first time,” Mark told me. “I wanted to see what it would be like. After I went, I was like, okay, I don’t need to go alone again.”

Of course, there are downsides. “The recurring complaint has been the sense of infantilizing and paternalism,” Ms. Kim said. On the first such tour that Ms. Kim (who is not an adoptee) accompanied, the group traveled on a bus with a huge banner identifying it as a being full of adoptees; the banner elicited so many responses of pity from onlookers that the group took to calling it the “orphan bus.” Mark told me a strikingly similar story of an adoptee friend on a tour whose bus bore a banner proclaiming it to be a bus of “Korean orphans.” Motherland tours have also been criticized “for being kind of unrealistic,” Ms. Kim added, and for “presenting a very limited view” of Korea.

Still, being a “bubble” has definite benefits. “One of the main things about these tours for adoptees,” Ms. Kim said, “is that the bubble [has] the positive effect of helping adoptees really bond with each other and develop these intimate exchanges about what it means to be adopted. In a way, the tour provides the space for that to happen.”

When adoptees return to their birth country, the collision of their two worlds can be confusing, chaotic, emotional, even traumatic. Sometimes they find closure, or connections, or lasting relationships. Or they very well may find that there’s nothing left in Korea for them to reclaim at all. But as Steve told me, “there’s something very powerful about just touching the ground you were born on.”

Previously: Part 1: What’s Your Name? Part 2: When Adoption Became Visible Part 3: Dating Inside And Out

Sarah Idzik is a writer living in Chicago.

Photo by redslmdr .

The Awl, 2009-2018

Jared kushner sells girl scout cookies, the awl stories you never saw, bears, britain, bunga-bunga: bye, new york city, january 30, 2018, steely dan, "everything must go", new york city, january 29, 2018.

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Applications for Individual/Family/Group visits are handled on a separate website: tour.inkas.org

Simply speaking this service is an InKAS run “Tourist agency.” Over years of experience, InKAS staff have discovered the crucial need to not only function as social workers who provide the emotional and psychological needs of the adoptive community, but also practical needs, such as accommodations and tourism services during one’s stay in Korea. Hence, we systematically receive inquiries from InKAS members who are planning future visits to Korea.

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Adoptees and adoptive families visiting South Korea cannot measure their value of experience like any other foreign tourists. Visiting South Korea is perhaps a more emotional experience than a vacation .  This is where the InKAS Motherland Tour Service carries its intrinsic value. With years of experience and know-how working with many Motherland Tour Groups over the past decade, InKAS understands the special needs of this very meaningful visit.

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For tour consulting for Australian families and adoptees,

Please contact Maria Camerotto from KIA Consulting

Email: [email protected] 

Web: www.kiaconsulting.com.au 

Phone: +61 (0)3 9379 6515 / +61 (0) 400 895 600

InKAS - International Korean Adoptee Service Inc [email protected] | Phone: +82-2-3148-0258 | Fax: +82-2-3148-0259 (03698) 15F, 662, Gyeongin-ro, Guro-gu, Seoul, Republic of Korea

Building Connections to Korea

We have over twenty years of experience in arranging and conducting adoption homeland tours and travel to Korea.

Why Travel With Us?

Korea Heritage Tours offers a variety of options for persons interested in traveling to South Korea. Are you looking for something different from the standard adoption agency tour? If so, then let us create a custom Korea tour just for you or your special travel group!

Complete with your own tour directors!

Specialized itinerary and all the extras

Our over 20 years of experience in organizing and conducting tours to Korea speaks for itself.

We look forward to traveling to Korea with you!

A few things we’re great at

We strive to provide incredible value at an affordable cost

Varying group sizes

We offer packages for groups of varying sizes and plan accordingly to best serve the entire group, from individual, family, to group sizes of 10 to 15 people.

specialized experiences

Flexible itineraries with opportunities to explore, meet people, taste the food, learn the history and touch the culture.

Educational “hands on” cultural experiences.

Pre-travel orientation materials and education are provided.

Experienced, professional tour staff comprised of adoptive parents, adult adoptees and in-country guides provide you with a personalized travel experience. 

Beverlee Einsig

In 1986, while working as a volunteer for an international adoption agency, Beverlee Einsig took her first flight across the Pacific Ocean to South Korea. It was the first trip in what would become a passion for Beverlee. Since then she has traveled to South Korea over 60 times. Her work with adoptees and their families is what captures her heart. For over 20 years, Beverlee has helped families travel to Korea.

Beverlee and her husband have 5 grown children; the youngest three were adopted from South Korea.

Beverlee coordinates the many details of the Korea Heritage Tour program.

Mr. Chae, Kyu Suk is our Korea tour guide and the in-country director for Korea Heritage Tours. He has extensive experience in assisting adoptive families and adoptees in connecting to the land, the people and the culture of Korea. 

Introducing people to the history and culture of Korea is the focus of his work. He is more than a guide, he is a teacher and a mentor. 

Mr. Chae is married and has two grown daughters. 

Mr. Chae coordinates the many in-country details of the Korea Heritage Tour program.

Contact us for an information packet! It will only take a minute

What people say.

We take great pride in providing excellent, attentive service to our tour clients. Please take a moment to read what some of our clients have said about us!

Having been blessed through adoption with two children born in South Korea, we have always wanted to see the country of their birth and to explore their heritage.   We knew that the founders of Korea Heritage Tours had many years of experience in providing group homeland tours for adoptees and their families. We hoped that they could provide a personal trip for our family that would allow our children and us as well to enjoy the things that a typical family in South Korea would enjoy.

They did just that for us and so much more. We are grateful, not only for a fun and unforgettable vacation, but also for the thoughtful planning and meeting of our needs as the trip progressed. We feel that this trip has been the best gift that we could have given to our children.  If we can go back to Korea again in a few years, we will definitely use Korea Heritage Tours to guide us on yet another exciting and memorable family time together with good friends. 

We recommend the services of Beverlee Einsig and Mr. Chae, Kyu Suk wholeheartedly and with absolutely no reservations. ” They know and love Korea the best of anyone and they know how to share that love with the people they serve.

The Hall Family

Recently, we had the opportunity to take our three daughters, two of whom are adopted from South Korea, on a trip to their homeland. To say that this was the trip of a life time is an understatement. What made this trip unique was the fact that we were able to have our own personal tour through Korea Heritage Tours.  It was obvious they cared about us. They not only went out of their way to make this trip special for our family, but contacted us after we were home to make sure that we had arrived safely and that everything was to our satisfaction. This trip definitely exceeded our expectations. For our daughters it was an opportunity to connect with their homeland in a way that they could never have done on a larger tour. They were treated like princesses and by the time we left Korea they had connected to their heritage and left with precious memories.  

We will never be able to thank Beverlee and Mr. Chae enough. We highly recommend them. Their tours are affordable and personal. What more could you ask?

The Bayer Family

Words cannot express how much we appreciated and enjoyed traveling with Korea Heritage Tours.

As a result of their careful planning and personal attention to detail our children were never bored. At the end of each day we had lots to talk about and lots to look forward to.

This trip helped our family gain a better understanding and appreciation our children’s Korean heritage.

The Beaulieu Family

We are looking forward to helping you discover Korea. 

We encourage you to contact us with your questions and comments. 

You may email us at  [email protected]  or call 918-289-4670, and we will be happy to answer your questions and provide you with the information that you desire. 

Please feel free to use the form below to request an information packet, ask questions or provide your comments. 

contact us KOREA HERITAGE TOURS P.O. Box 471276 Tulsa, OK 74147 Phone: 918-289-4670 fax: 918-622-0326

• Read More Stories From Orphans & Vulnerable Children
• Read More Stories From Korea
• Read More Stories From Holt Updates & News

Thank You, David Kim

On January 25, 2018, we said a heartbroken goodbye to Dr. David Hyungbok Kim, who alongside Harry and Bertha Holt pioneered the modern practice of international adoption. He lived 86 extraordinary years.

Earlier this year, as summer turned to fall, Holt leaders and donors came together to create a tribute to our founders in the lobby of our building in Eugene. Along one wall we would hang framed photos of Harry and Bertha Holt above a glass case holding pieces from our history as an organization. Medals and awards, flight logs and newspaper clippings. A copy of the original Holt Bill allowing Harry and Bertha to bring home eight children from Korea. A pair of pink Korean silk shoes that Bertha once wore.

But along one wall — a wall that runs the full length of the room — we would create a mosaic with pictures of children who have come home to families over the years. Pieced together, in shadow and light, these individual photos would capture the image of one person whose legacy is truly bound to every child who has ever came home to a family through international adoption. A person who, with a deep Christian faith, devoted his whole life to advocating for orphaned and homeless children.

Truly, whenever and wherever you see a child in the loving care of a family to which they were not born, you see the beautiful heart and the incredible, enduring legacy of Dr. David Hyungbok Kim.

David began his life’s work in the summer of 1956, in South Korea, when Harry Holt hired him as the first employee of the nascent Holt Adoption Program — the program that would become Holt International. With English skills he learned while working for an American Army chaplain during the Korean War, David started his employment as an interpreter for Harry Holt. But the American lumberman soon recognized David’s skills, as well as his dedication to the mission that had called Harry to Korea — to seek families for the thousands of children left orphaned or abandoned in the wake of the Korean War. David quickly rose in Harry’s esteem, and soon, Harry Holt entrusted him to lead the Holt Adoption Program, making David the first Korean to head a U.S. charity. He was just 25 years old.

As head of the Holt Adoption Program, David would go on to oversee the adoption of thousands upon thousands of orphaned and homeless Korean children into loving families in the U.S.

“We had to reinvent the wheel in almost every situation,” David said of the early years of the program, during a 2012 interview with The Korea Society . “National adoptions had never occurred in Korea before, and the legal process for adoption in Korea — especially for American families — was done under a different context. Processing legal papers through the Korean government was extremely difficult.”

David said it wasn’t easy, with government employees often resistant to the mounds of paperwork required to process each adoption. Undeterred, David went from official to official, moving them with his compassion for the children. “I spent a lot of time pleading with them, reminding them that we had all these kids to care for, and they were the only ones who could help,” he said.

As the majority of children who came into care in the mid-to-late 1950s were abandoned — or otherwise without any identifying information — David became their legal guardian, which authorized him to sign immigration and adoption documents on their behalf. David’s wife, Nancy, recalled how one evening when they were newly engaged, he told her that he was the legal guardian to over 2,000 babies to be adopted by American families.

As the children’s “first father,” as he once referred to himself, David also became a parental figure to the children while in care in Korea — viewing his role as more than just a legal title. He tenderly cared for them, changed their diapers, comforted and carried them when they were ill, gave many haircuts, and provided the older children with instruction and guidance.

Later, in his 2001 memoir, “ Who Will Answer ,” David would share how much he loved visiting them once they were home in their adoptive families. “They were in my heart and soul, having worked with them closely every day at the center,” he wrote.

Many Korean adoptees only briefly carried the “Kim” name, replacing it with the American surname of their adoptive families once home in the U.S. But to David Kim, this name change symbolized the revolution that the Holts began, and that he championed throughout his life — a revolution in the concept, color and composition of family.

At a time of divisive racial tension and discrimination in the U.S., David demonstrated that love and compassion can transcend race, religion, ethnicity or nationality. “It was the 1950s,” he said in 2012. “And despite that, [Harry Holt] adopted children from Korea. He brought Korean children back into the United States to become part of American families. Until then, adopting black children, Hispanic children or Asian-minority children was almost completely unknown.”

While changing attitudes in the West, David and the Holts’ work also began to change hearts and minds in other countries — including Korea. It wasn’t until 1976, when the Korean government passed new adoption legislation, that children adopted domestically in Korea could take on the new last name of their families. Before then, David said, most adoptions were done to help perpetuate the family name — and for that reason, most families only adopted boys. But “our presence changed our country’s thinking,” he said of the Holt Adoption Program.

“The Korean government saw that once they put their seals on documents for children to come to the United States, we did not discriminate in terms of which child went to which family,” he said. “It was based on meeting the needs of the child. It was child-centered adoption. We did not care whether a ‘Kim’ was adopted into the Smith family or the Gonzalez family or the Jones family.”

During his time overseeing the Holt Adoption Program in Korea, David personally escorted hundreds of children by chartered flight to their adoptive families in the U.S. With almost 60-100 children to a plane, and with little or no rest, he fed and comforted the children. He often joked about the number of diapers he changed on what was then a more than 40-hour journey from Seoul to Portland, Oregon. And in 1982, when he received an honorary doctorate of divinity from Northwest Christian College, he playfully described it as a “D.D. — a doctor of divinity and diapers.”

But in the chaos and poverty following the war, David also endured harrowing experiences that would stay with him forever.

“Unfortunately, one child was already very ill by the time the paperwork was completed,” David said in 2012, of one early flight from Korea. “I had that baby on my lap and was using a portable oxygen mask to help the child keep breathing. And my gosh, I don’t know. My arm was numb, and I wasn’t feeling anything at that point. With all that, the baby succumbed. Nothing like that had ever happened to me before … It was a devastating experience.”

Other children who came into care after the war didn’t survive long enough to make the flight to a family in the U.S. “A lot of children arrived malnourished,” he said in 2012. “They were all skin and bones … The skin was literally wrapped around the bone.”

The suffering of children that David witnessed during his early days working for Harry Holt in post-war Korea in many ways shaped the course of his life and career. But long before he met Harry Holt, David and his family endured incredible suffering of their own.

Born in 1931 in Longjing, Manchuria — a region that is today a part of northeast China — David described his childhood before WWII as idyllic.

“The second child and first son of a Presbyterian minister, my life had been filled with simple country activities,” he wrote in “Who Will Answer.” “My family owned farmland upon which several families grew rice for a share of the crop. My siblings were an older sister, three younger sisters and a younger brother, and we enjoyed a comfortable existence with virtually no cares.”

By heritage Korean, David’s family emigrated to Manchuria from northern Korea in the early twentieth century. Sent by the Canadian Presbytery to spread Christianity, his grandfather was the region’s first Christian missionary from Korea.

But a year before David was born, Japan occupied Manchuria, and David and his family were stripped of their Korean identity. Because his grandfather worked with Canadian missionaries, his family was under constant surveillance by the Japanese military police, who suspected they were spies.

“Once the war with the Japanese ended, the Russians arrived, bringing with them a different type of oppression and yet another nightmare,” David said in 2012. “My family had many ups and downs during these years and we faced a lot of hardship. I believe my patience and desire to persevere were developed during these years, and these many difficulties taught us how to survive, regardless of the conditions around us.”

Russian domination gave way to the Cultural Revolution in China, during which David’s family experienced religious persecution — and David watched his father be put on trial as an intellectual, the first minister to be charged.

While many other intellectuals were publicly stoned to death during the “people’s trials,” David’s father was miraculously released. Shortly afterward, with the threat of imprisonment and death still looming, David escaped with his father to South Korea, and three months later, his family joined them in Seoul.

“My memories of that day are so vivid. It was March 17, and the Tumen River was still frozen,” David said of the day he escaped to Korea. “Walking on the frozen ice, we made it south, and dad asked me to kneel. We both prayed in thanks for our lives, and 40 days later our family members arrived.”

Their respite, however, was short lived, with the start of the Korean War in 1950. During the war, his father was imprisoned by the Communists because of his faith. His father succumbed to the injuries he suffered, and suddenly David became the head of the household, the sole support for his mother and five younger siblings. He worked any job that he could find, while at the same time studying for the college entrance exam. Determined to ensure a better future for his siblings, he worked tirelessly to put all five of his siblings through school, including college. David was accepted into Seoul National University, the most prestigious in Korea, and in 1959, he received his degree from the Teacher’s College.

From 1956 to 1963, David remained in Korea, leading the Holt Adoption Program. Throughout these early years, working side by side, David and Harry Holt developed a bond so profound that David later described it as “almost a son and father relationship.”

“We had an understanding, and we both thought the same way,” David said in 2012. “That’s what helped us be so successful and accomplish as much as we did.”

One conversation that David shared with Harry Holt early in Korea had a particularly strong impact on him. The title of David’s memoir, “Who Will Answer,” is also drawn from this moment — from a question that Harry Holt posed to David while they stood, praying over the freshly dug graves of children who did not survive.

“After the prayer, Mr. Holt looked me straight in eye, and asked, ‘Brother Kim, who will answer for these children when we stand before God?’” David wrote in his memoir. “Silence prevailed as we searched for an answer. After a few minutes Elder Lee and I shoveled frozen dirt onto the little coffin. There were no words from any of us, even after we arrived back at the center. The question stayed in my thoughts for the next several days. What would be my answer when I stood before God? It made me think of the responsibility that I bore for every baby who died under our care.”

David carried this responsibility long after Harry Holt passed away, and he continued to reflect on this moment throughout his life. In June 2016, during a speech David gave at a reunion of the “first wave” of Korean adoptees — adoptees who came home during the mid to late 1950s — he again shared this memory.

“You know, those words stood out until today,” David said, now no longer a young man just starting his life, but a man in his mid 80s, reflecting upon how he had lived.

“I was very lucky,” he told the audience of Korean adoptees, themselves in their late 50s and early 60s. “There was a reason for me to be there when he spoke. I keep thinking about that. He said, ‘Who will answer,’ then later said, ‘when we stand before God?’ He was really burdened for the Korean children. You think about this. It’s not a simple statement. I hope that anybody who works with the kids will think about this all the time. And his words made me go all this time.”

While still in Korea, in the 1960s, David created one of his most significant legacies — pioneering foster care for children as a more nurturing alternative to institutional care. The foster care model that David built in Korea would later be recognized by UNICEF as best practice for children in care, and would go on to be studied and replicated throughout the world.

During this time, he also strived to ensure that the children not adopted, because of disability or for whatever reason, would not be forgotten and turned away. He searched for three years to find a suitable site on which to build a permanent home for these children. He found the site at Ilsan, which remains today a community, home and family to hundreds of disabled residents, some of whom have lived there for their entire lives.

It was in those years that David met his wife, Nancy, in Seoul, and in 1960 they married. Two sons, Paul Sungbae and John Hyunbae, followed. Their third son, Andrew Inbae, was born in Eugene, Oregon. As they built their own family, David continued to work tirelessly to bring homeless children into loving families through adoption. David and Nancy would open their home to older adoptees who were having difficulties in their initial adoption placement, refusing to send them back to Korea, and cared for them alongside their own children until a permanent adoptive family could be found.

As the Holt Adoption Program grew, so did David’s recognition that to successfully lead this international organization, he needed to acquire professional knowledge. He applied to the Master of Social Work program at Portland State University, and in 1963 was accepted with a full scholarship. David traveled alone to the United States first, and supported himself by working as a gardener. Once he became more established, he brought his wife and two young children.

In April 1964, while David was studying in the United States, Harry Holt died of a sudden heart attack in Korea — leaving the future of the Holt Adoption Program in doubt. David was torn, and was prepared to return to Korea to carry on Harry’s work. But after meeting with Harry’s wife, Bertha, and brother Phillip, David decided that he should stay and complete his education for the future of the organization. In 1965, he earned a master’s degree in social work from Portland State University, and thereafter was hired by Holt as Associate Director.

In the years that followed, David worked alongside Bertha Holt to mature the Holt Adoption Program into Holt International, the world’s leading global child welfare, family preservation and adoption organization. He played a central role in expanding Holt’s work to many countries around the world, including Vietnam, India, Thailand, China, the Philippines, Mongolia and North Korea.

From 1980 to 1990, David served as Executive Director of Holt International, and after his retirement he continued to serve as President Emeritus and lifetime member of the Holt Board of Directors. He remained active with the organization, serving as an ambassador at large, an advocate for children, a fundraiser and a mentor.

Throughout his life, he always made time to listen to adoptees and adoptive families, and from his conversations with them, realized that there was a great need within this community for answers to questions that arose in their lives, concerning their birth heritage. To address this need, he designed the first Motherland Tours to Korea for Korean adoptees, and in 1975 led the very first tour. He personally led all of the tours for many years, and established a fundamental change in social work practice. Today, many other organizations and agencies offer similar programs, enabling thousands of adoptees and adoptive families to benefit from his insight.

Seeing how successful Holt motherland tours became, he also saw a need among younger adoptees in developing a sense of self and pride in their birth heritage. To that end, he established Holt Heritage Camp. As most early Holt adoptees were from Korea, the majority of Holt’s first camp participants were also of Korean heritage. But today, hundreds of adoptees from countries across the world, including the U.S., attend what is now known as “ Holt Adoptee Camp ” every summer.

David helped to establish social work as a practice in many developing countries, built bridges and understanding between cultures, and helped cultivate Holt’s child-centered model of practice that prioritizes keeping children with their birth families, whenever possible. He developed foster care, pregnancy counseling and family crisis counseling programs, domestic adoption and other services in the U.S. and many other countries. In 1968, he helped created an unprecedented movement to adopt older children and children with special needs.

And when nations gathered in the early 1990s to draft The Hague Convention on Intercountry Adoption, David stood up to fiercely defend every child’s right to a family, and to advocate for long-term, post-adoption services. His impassioned eloquence resulted in a preamble that clearly states that children need parents of their own, and that adoption is the best solution for children who cannot remain with their birth families.

Holt’s vice president of policy and external affairs, Susan Soonkeum Cox, sat alongside David as members of the U.S. delegation to The Hague. The first adoptee appointed to Holt’s board of directors, Susan worked for many years alongside David, a man she described as an “incredible human being.”

“I had the benefit of being at The Hague with David,” Susan shared during a 2017 Holt staff meeting honoring David. “Since The Hague is so much a part of everything we do now, I wish that everyone here could have seen David really stand up and fight, truly, for the long-term post-adoption [services] for kids. There were law professors. But David could speak from the benefit of being a social worker and being able to speak in first-person, and the impact that he had on persuading 66 countries was really amazing.”

With a legacy beyond measure, David’s life continues to inspire people around the world who work to ensure stable, loving families for children. This is especially true at Holt.

“He taught me so much about care and passion, and compassion for ‘the least of these,’” Holt’s president and CEO, Phil Littleton, says, describing David as his “personal hero and mentor.”

David’s eldest son, Paul, also carries on his father’s legacy as Holt’s director of Korea and Mongolia programs. “He was always self-sacrificing,” Paul says. “Any penny that the organization received, he always felt that it should be used for the children and nothing else. Whenever he traveled overseas, instead of staying in a fancy hotel, he would stay at a guesthouse at the orphanage he was visiting, at the YMCA, in very, very humble quarters. Sometimes in places like India, when he was staying at a guesthouse in the orphanage, he would tell me about being able to see the stars in the cracks of the beams overhead … He truly believed that we are stewards of the gifts we received and that we are privileged and entrusted by God to fulfill this mission.”

Paul described his father as a “very faithful and humble servant,” and someone whose compassion and love and faith made you want to “work just that much harder and to be a better person.” He also described him as “just a wonderful dad” who always put his family first.

After observing her young husband care for 97 babies over 48 hours on their first flight together from Seoul to Portland, Oregon, David’s wife, Nancy, began to realize that the man she married was “not just an ordinary man, but chosen by Harry Holt as his partner in Christ.”

“His devotion and commitment to saving little lives inspired me deeply,” she said of her husband.

During his lifetime, David was honored by universities, international organizations and the governments of many nations. Most notably, he was an honoree and recipient of the 2001 Kellogg’s Humanitarian Award. And in 2005, he received the Civil Order of Merit by the Government of the Republic of Korea, the highest civilian award that can be conferred by the Korean government.

But for David Kim, the greatest honor of his life was seeing the outcome of all that he had worked for — of meeting adoptees, now grown, and with families, lives and achievements of their own.

“My biggest thrill since I was retired from Holt was seeing the adult adoptees gathering in Washington D.C.,” David said during a Holt interview in 2014. “And it was really heart-moving. I was so happy! I often wondered if what I’d done was the right thing or not. How they fared, kids I’d placed in homes in the United States. And I’d often wondered how they turned out. But I was very happy to see all those children, came there, celebrating their lives — a successful life, and a happy life.”

During his final speech before the Holt International staff in Eugene, in September 2017, David offered a reminder.

“We’re all torchbearers — the torch that was lit 67 years ago,” he said. “Don’t forget, we’re not creating this. We’re just a torch that was lit by Harry Holt, and we carry that. We have to carry that successfully without having it extinguish. That is, try to find homes for these homeless children. That’s what Harry’s heart was set on, finding homes for the homeless children.”

David Kim is survived by his wife Nancy; his three sons, Paul Sungbae Kim (Beth Keech), John Hyunbae (Julie) Kim, and Andrew Inbae Kim (Catt Rosa); his six grandchildren, Maya, Jonah, Christopher, Naomi, Elijah and Soraya; and the thousands of adopted children whose lives he so profoundly touched.

A celebration of David’s life will take place at the Faith Center on February 24, from 2:00 PM to 4:00 PM. In lieu of flowers, the family has requested that if would like to make a donation in David’s honor, you can give here . Your gift will be used to help children with urgent needs that might otherwise go unmet.

Copies of David’s memoir, “Who Will Answer,” are available for $25. Contact Masha Ma at [email protected] or at 541-687-2202, ext 193 to order a copy.

View David’s 2012 interview with The Korea Society:

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