Link: Bird Flu

I found this article on one of the forums. Bird flu has me a little confused. I’m never sure if I should be ignoring it our seeing it as the next pandemic catastrophe. On one hand, it really hasn’t been as devastating as the early news reports made it out to be, but on the other hand my work has a task force and we’re trying to determine what we would do if the company was down by 50%. Mostly, I’ve decided to... more

Wednesday was my sister’s birthday. We always celebrate her birthday on Thanksgiving because we are together, just like we celebrate the rest of our birthdays around Easter. My sister’s birthday is really the actual day she was born. I know that sounds funny to most, but when I was adopted it was pretty rare that you knew exactly when your Korean adoptee was born. They gave you approximates.

The day that we celebrate my birthday could be my birthday or it could be another day. My mother is convinced that I was born on her birthday... more

For all of you who celebrate Thanksgiving, Happy Thanksgiving. For those of you who don't, have a wonderful day doing whatever makes you happy.

We arrived at my parents' house last night, but I couldn't find enough energy to blog until this morning. I enjoy Thankgiving because we always celebrate with family and we always celebrate my sister's birthday. My history major makes it impossible for me to accept the Pilgrim and Indian scenerio. In fact, when I think about it, I get a little upset so I try not to go there. Instead, I believe that everyone should have a day to reflect on what we are thankful for.

My son has a little chant that he says at school. "We are thankful... more

Things have been very hectic around my house. We’re moving our office into the basement. The room that used to be the office is now going to be my son’s new big boy room. We’re buying him a new bed. We’ll make the move a little more gradual. Besides, we bought him a loft…so he’s probably going to be sleeping on the floor for awhile anyhow.

To top that off, my husband and I both have strep throat. The funny thing is that (other than the sore throat) I feel fine. I had no fever, no chills, no symptoms… I have a lot of energy and I have been using every ounce of it to chase my son. If my husband hadn’t gotten sick, I wouldn’t have known I had strep throat.

My husband,... more

Link: Minnesota Daily

I was reading this article the other day and I was thinking that it was pretty great that there were now large enough concentrations of Korean adoptees that they could form groups. Where I was growing up, we were pretty rare and here is a whole group. Isn’t that fantastic?

Twin sisters, Lea and Rae Green, moved from South Korea to St. Paul in 1988.

This past summer, the first-year University students started meeting... more

Tomorrow is the big football game – University of Michigan vs. Ohio State. Some of the hype seems absolutely ridiculous to me, but I’m making my way through it. I was raised in Ohio, but I’m not an Ohio State fan (mostly because I’m not a football fan). I live in Michigan and my husband works for the University of Michigan. Considering that more than half of our livelihood comes from the U of Michigan, I tend to lean towards the maize and blue, but mostly I remain a little detached.

The news over the last few weeks has been... more

Link: Part 1

I tried to picture what a defense mechanism would look like. I found myself thinking about Star Trek. The captain of the ship says, “Shields up” and a translucent bubble forms around the ship. Weapons fire bounces off the shields and the occupants of the ship are shaken, but unhurt.

The problem with leaving your shields up and not fighting back, is that eventually those alien weapons start to find weaknesses in your shields.... more

I think that some Korean adoptees have a defense mechanism that allows us to completely tune out some of the offensive comments. I find that sometimes I am totally unaware that something has happened until someone tells me. Friends have said to me how insensitive a question was or how rude a comment was and I realize that I didn’t even notice it. When I think back to the conversation, I can see it, but while I was there…it didn’t even phase me.

In some ways, I think that this defense mechanism that I’ve developed is a good thing and in some ways... more

I was nine when my sister arrived from Korea, so I was old enough to understand that not everything that is said in the syrupy tone that adults use with babies was really sweet. One particular time really sticks out in my head because I think it’s the first time that I really understood that some people said bad things about adoption. A neighbor waived at me when I was riding my bike by their house and I stopped. “Where’s your expensive sister?” He asked.

I had no idea what he was talking about, but I wasn’t stupid. Even at nine, I heard the underlying... more

This is great! When I was little, we had some plastic hotdogs and plastic canned vegetables. Now, they have plastic full-course meals. I’ve noticed an increased choice of foods – chicken, vegetables, fruit, fastfood, etc… but, I’ve never seen Asian food before.

So, as I was leafing through the Lilly’s Kids catalog, I stopped and smiled. There in the middle of the page was an ... more