Stories of Adult Transnational Adoptees and their American Parents

Asian Adult Adoptees of Washington (AAAW) is a resource that provides mentoring, fellowship and educational opportunities for Asian American and Pacific Islander adoptees and the community.

"Adopted Vietnamese International (AVI) was launched in April 2000 on the 25th anniversary of end the Viet Nam War. AVI is a volunteer network that is dedicated to Vietnamese adoptees who where adopted before, during or in connection with the Viet Nam War or its mass exodus that directly resulted. AVI is based in Australia and has an international membership including individuals from the US, Canada, and European nations. AVI is dedicated to providing opportunities for adopted Vietnamese to explore our history together and to connect with each other. AVI also aims to promote our unique insights on adoption and build networks with the wider community made up of adoptive parents and birth parents, other trans-racial adoption communities, younger generations of adopted Vietnamese, general members of the Vietnamese Diaspora and other cultural communities. The AVI network aims to offer a range of Internet resources, creative projects, adoptee events and research in order to support adoptee perspectives and community development."

"Adoption Circle of Hawaii Inc., established in 1986, is a non-profit organization that provides information, advocacy, and support to members of the triad [adoptee, adoptive parent, biological parent] and educates the community about the adoption experience. We are a grassroots organization composed of triad members and professionals who believe that truth in adoption best serves the needs of all involved."

"AFAAD connects, supports, and advocates for the needs of the African diasporic adoption and foster care community on a global level through community outreach and education, legislative advocacy, research, and social gatherings"

The mission of Also-Known-As, Inc. is to empower the voice of adult international adoptees, build cultural bridges, transform perceptions of race, and acknowledge the loss of the birth country, culture, language and biological family experienced by international adoptees.

"The Association of Korean Adoptees (AKA) is a Southern California-based organization whose umbrella covers Los Angeles, Orange County, San Diego, and Santa Barbara. Established in 1994, AKA is a non-profit, independent and secular group of adult, Korean-born adoptees and their associates. AKA is a 501(c)(3) California Nonprofit Public Benefit Corporation."

FAN was launched in January 2005 as the first web-based organization to provide support, resources, and a networking system for Filipino adoptees, their families, and the international adoption community. The organization was conceived in response to the lack of post-adoption resources for children and adults adopted from the Philippines and with Filipino heritage. In January 2005, FAN was successfully launched, which contains news articles, adoptee stories, and resource links. In addition to being a vital, internationally accessible resource and networking portal, FAN is a community of advocates.

Since the mid 1950's Holt International has placed more than 40,000 children with adoptive families. Although many of the adoptees have grown up-- what ever age they are-- it seems that adoptees never outgrow the pleasure of connecting with other adoptees who share the unique life experience of being an international adoptee.

The objective of the IKAA website is to create a platform to share and exchange information internationally and provide a permanent forum for the network of Korean adoptee associations worldwide.

Korean Adoptees of Hawai'i (KAHI) is an organization for adult Korean adoptees living in the Aloha State. Adopted Koreans, 18 years and older, are invited to join us at one of our upcoming meetings or events.

KAAN's mission is to support networking and build understanding among Adoptees, Adoptive Families, Koreans And Korean Americans.

The Vietnamese Adoptee Network seeks to maximize the Vietnamese adoptee experience in a caring, supportive environment by networking them to other Vietnamese adoptees and community resources. Facebook page: VAN | Vietnamese Adoptee Network, email: info@vadn.org

"AK Connection serves the adult adopted Korean community of Minnesota. Check our site often to learn about opportunities that will connect you to other adult Korean adoptees, their families, networks, and friends."

"The Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute, founded in 1996, is a national not-for-profit organization devoted to improving adoption policy and practice. The Adoption Institute's mission is to provide leadership that improves adoption laws, policies and practices - through sound research, education and advocacy - in order to better the lives of everyone touched by adoption."

"Commentaries and conversations about social justice, human rights, families, children ... and adoption. By Adam Pertman, Executive Director of the Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute and Author of 'Adoption Nation: How the Adoption Revolution is Transforming Our Families - and America'."

Jaeran Kim's re/view of the book, Choosing Ethnicity, Negotiating Race. Jae Ran Kim's blog provides "a place to explore, discover, and think aloud about social work practice, research, ethics, theory, education and policy."

"With my husband I raised three children, who are now grown. Two of our kids were adopted from Korea, a one-year old with special medical needs, and an older child adopted at age ten. We waded into uncharted territory, as not only were two of our children adopted transracially (I'm American Indian and my husband is white), but we adopted an older child changing the birth order within our family. We had a birth daughter who became our 'middle child.' Yet I didn't plan to write on the topic of transracial adoption. This just sort of happened. ..."

"As thousands of adoptees have returned to Korea, they have been creating a growing body of art with which to tell their stories. ..."

"Emile Mack may be the highest-ranking Asian American firefighter of a major American city, but what tends to surprise people most about the Los Angeles Deputy Fire Chief is his most unique background: At age 3, he was adopted by an African American couple. His is a story that challenges our notions of race and identity; it's about the ties that bind and the gift of family."

"Adoption is complicated. Poetry is complicated. The featured poets share some of their experiences with adoption and how it may or may not affect their poems and/or poetics."

Series: Factsheets for Families Author(s): Child Welfare Information Gateway

"Life and Family as a Korean Adoptee" by Milaleum

"The goal of the Adoption Mosaic blog is to create a safe space where adoption community members can voice their experience, dialogue about issues, and learn from one another." See also their Facebook page at: https://www.facebook.com/#!/AdoptionMosaic.

"Adoptive Families, the award-winning national adoption magazine, is the leading adoption information source for families before, during, and after adoption."

"The only magazine dedicated to International and Transracial Adoption."

"I anticipate that many of my blog entries may focus largely on adoption. As a writer, an editor, and a transracially, transnationally adopted Korean American who is actively involved with the global Korean adoptee community and adult adoptee organization leadership, I embrace blogging and the Internet as effective and powerful tools for sharing ideas and building community among fellow adoptees and our allies."

"In 2002, spurred by the shuttering of a.Magazine, a small group of 20-and-30-something journalists and artists got together to fill the void by envisioning the kind of magazine we always wanted to read: a publication that would go beyond celebrity interviews and essays about discovering our roots, which we found a long time ago, thank-you-very-much. We began meeting around a kitchen table in San Francisco that spring, and over snacks and beer, a vision slowly emerged. The magazine wouldn't flinch at covering serious issues, but also wouldn't take itself too seriously. It would cover Asian Americans in Texas, Kansas and Minnesota, not just the critical mass living in California and New York. It would feature emerging artists, thinkers and doers, not only the few established Asian Americans who'd gotten mainstream approval. It would be a magazine that looked beyond identity -- we'd explore cultural issues while tackling what is Asian American by accident, by tangent or by happenstance. ..."

"Margie. Mom through Korean adoption. You can find me online at Third Mom, Angry Adoptive Mom and Komapseumnida. Each shares a different perspective on my part of the adoption journey."

"A Vietnamese adoptee and her thoughts about the past, how it's shaped the present and what it could mean for the future."

"Talking about adoption, birthparents, abandonment, race, and China with my kids. That's not all we talk about -- but reading this blog, you'll think it's all we do!!!!!"

"Well-behaved women rarely make history ... neither do silent adoptees"

"I am a social worker who doesn't believe that social work is just about "saving" people or "helping" people. Social work is about reform and empowerment, not about social control. I am attempting to be an agent of change from within the institutional structures that historically have been used to discriminate against those our society does not value. This blog was born in March of 2006 as a way to put down my thoughts about international and transracial adoption, foster care, race and social work from a point of view that is often missing - the adoptee themselves."

"By birth. By adoption. By marriage. By choice. By circumstance."

Includes article titled Trying to Connect: Stories of Adult Transnational Adoptees and Their Parents by Karen Benally and Lisa "Charlie" DeMorais Teixeira

The link takes you to a site managed by Deann Borshay Liem, Korean adoptee and filmmaker, in conjunction with Mu films. Here you can share a photo and an adoption story. For an example, see http://mufilms.tumblr.com/post/26566517608/on-december-4-1979-i-flew-from-seoul-korea-to

Conference Basics "Since 1999, KAAN has provided annual conferences in the U.S. or Korea. These conferences are unique assemblies of Korean-born adoptees of all ages as well as family through birth, adoption or marriage, other Koreans and Korean-Americans, social workers, adoptees from other backgrounds, community leaders, and more. Through gathering together, we find what we have in common and where we can help one another. Our conferences provide 30+ sessions on race and identity, family relationships, parenting tools, search and reunion, etc. Presenters include authors, educators, activists, therapists, and grassroots leaders. Each block includes an adoptee-only session as well as many choices open to all. Cultural and social activities are offered as well as vendors, exhibits, and film screenings."

"Adopted reveals the grit rather than the glamor of transracial adoption. First-time director Barb Lee goes deep into the intimate lives of two well-meaning families and shows us the subtle challenges they face."

"Transracial adoption from one black girl's perspective"

"In 1966, Deann Borshay Liem was adopted by an American family and was sent from Korea to her new home. Growing up in California, the memory of her birth family was nearly obliterated until recurring dreams lead Borshay Liem to discover the truth: her Korean mother was very much alive. Bravely uniting her biological and adoptive families, Borshay Liem's heartfelt journey makes First Person Plural a poignant essay on family, loss, and the reconciling of two identities."

"Her passport said she was Cha Jung Hee. She knew she was not. So began a 40-year deception for a Korean adoptee who came to the US in 1966. Told to keep her true identity a secret from her new American family, this eight-year-old girl quickly forgot she was ever anyone else. But why had her identity been switched? And who was the real Cha Jung Hee? IN THE MATTER OF CHA JUNG HEE is the search to find the answers."

Misplaced Baggage: Same, Same, But Different by photographer Ahk Dao Kolbe "is a series of 47 intimate portraits of Vietnamese adoptees who grew up within the US, UK, Europe and Australia. This portrait series increases awareness of the existence of the Vietnamese adoptee community by exposing the unique individuality of each of us and the ways that we are more alike than unalike."

"Avery is the adopted African-American child of white Jewish lesbians. Her older brother is black and Puerto Rican and her younger brother is Korean.... [When] Avery writes to her birth mother, the response throws her into crisis. ..."

"A story of loss and separation, Resilience is a character-driven documentary that takes a unique look at international adoption from the perspective of a Korean birth mother and her American son. A single story among thousands of stories untold, the film follows the remarkable journey of Myungja as she reconnects with her son after 30 years apart."

"The primary themes of Somewhere Between are identity formation, family, adoption and race. And really, the film focuses on the intersection of all of these through the coming-of-age of four girls. As they discover who they are, so do we. Through their specific stories, we, as viewers, will come to understand on a deeper level, the meaning of family, and our still prevalent cultural disconnects around stereotyping and race???whether we are adoptive families or not."

"What is it like to be torn from your Chinese foster family, put on a plane with strangers and wake up in a new country, family and culture? ..."

Still Present Pasts is a multi-media exhibit of installation and performance art, documentary film and archival photographs, and oral histories that explores memories and legacies of the Korean War.

First Chinese Adult Adoptee Worldwide Reunion 2010, Hong Kong; Theme: "Journey Through Adoption"

"This net resource is provided by Families with Children from China (FCC). FCC is a nondenominational organization of families who have adopted children from China. The purpose of FCC is provide a network of support for families who've adopted in China and to provide information to prospective parents. The purpose of this site is to consolidate the information that has been put together by the families of FCC, in order to make it easier for future parents to consider adopting from China. We also try to provide pointers to other adoption and China related resources available on the Web."

"AHA offers adoptee support and resources compiled by the adoption experts - ADOPTEES."

"Korean Focus helps adoptive and multiethnic Korean American families develop an appreciation of the rich heritage of Korea and the contributions of Korean Americans to American culture by offering educational programs for children and adults, support and information to prospective adoptive families, presentations on Korean culture and Korean American issues, social events centered around Korean holidays, and contact with the Korean American community through collaboration on programs and events. We inform our members and friends of our and other community activities and events through our website and blog, eBulletin, Facebook page and Twitter feed."

"We are committed to supporting the integration of culture, identity, and life experience for adoptee individuals, their families, and the greater community."

"A Chinese adoptive parent and certified school counselor is looking for Chinese adoptees between the ages of 16 and 21,and their parent(s), to participate in a doctoral research study entitled, "Daughters of China: An Examination of the Home, School, and Community Experiences of Young Adult and Adolescent Chinese Adoptees". The goal of this study is to give a voice to this older group of adoptees by providing them an opportunity to share their experiences from their own perspective."

My name is Sophia Gonfiotti- Mattingly and I recently found your website doing a search on transnational adoption for a study I am working on. It seems that we have very similar research interests and I was wondering if you might be able to help me get the word out about my work, I am having a difficult time reaching my target population. Any help, advice or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. A little bit about me and what I am doing: I am the mother of an adopted daughter from China. I am also a doctoral student in the School of Education at the University of California - Davis. I am currently working on a pilot study for my dissertation investigating the cultural and ethnic self-identity development of transnationally adopted Chinese females. The current body of research consists primarily of literature focused on parent reporting about the identity of their school- aged adopted Chinese daughters. It is my aim to add the unique voice of the late adolescent adopted daughters to the current body of scholarly work. I have created a brief survey which will hopefully help me learn if I am asking the right questions and to ensure that I am addressing the issues most important to the transnationally adopted daughters of China. This pilot study survey has been approved (see attached) by the Institutional Review Board (IRB) and is open to any transnationally adopted Chinese female age 18 and over. Your willingness to pass the survey link on to friends or relatives who fit the study profile or posting the survey link to your blog etc... would also be greatly appreciated. If you will be forwarding or posting this link, please feel free to include the contents of this email. All survey responses are anonymous and no identifying information will be collected.