When I was little I had a little green button that I liked to wear on St. Patrick’s Day. It said “Kiss Me I’m Irish.” It served a couple of purposes. First, it kept people from pinching me because I wasn’t wearing green. Second, it really baffled people. They would read the button, look at me and most people wouldn’t even ask the question.

Here’s the truth. Growing up, it never occurred to me that my mother’s Irish heritage wasn’t mine because I was adopted. I’ve written about that before. It’s why I can sing a couple of Irish pub songs and dance a few steps of the Irish jig (though badly).

Several years ago, a local business owner called me and said that he wanted... more

I can’t find a definitive answer to that question. I’ve found everything from the late 1880s to 1903. 1903 seems to mark the first significant wave of Korean immigrants. They came to Hawaii to be laborers in the growing sugar industry.

The reason I was looking at all was because tomorrow I’m off to my once a year historical reenactment. I wanted to see if it was all possible that a Korean would be a part of a pre-1880 reenactment. For those of you who don’t know, the family business is on my father’s side deals with historical reenacting (the muzzleloaders, clothes, parts, books, etc…). When I was growing up, I was his little shadow and I went to many of the historical reenactments... more

I was really disappointed when I learned that AsianWeek had published an article by Kenneth Eng entitled “Why I Hate Blacks.” I often looked to AsianWeek to see what was happening in the Asian community. It’s proof that racism is not limited to majority races.

I found the following article on the New American Media website and I found it more interesting than the other articles because it included audio.

Link: New American Media

The basics of the article are that ethnic media groups got together to discuss what the media’s responsibility... more

One of the things that I think parents of Korean adoptees have to be is diligent. We have to constantly watch the people around us to make sure that they aren’t making assumptions about our children that will hurt them or affect the way they are treated. So many people see a Korean adoptee and start making assumptions based on their visual analysis. They don’t look any deeper.

When I was in seventh grade, I was not doing very well in English class, which was confusing my parents. Up until that point, English was always one of my favorite subjects... more

I have often wondered why people automatically assume that I’m Japanese. (Actually, Japanese and Chinese are pretty interchangeable.) It’s not that I don’t think I look Japanese, it’s more that I wonder why they would try to guess what race I am. The same person who asks me that question is not likely to walk up to a Caucasian woman and ask if she’s French. Why is it proper etiquette to ask me if I’m Japanese?

Truthfully, I generally consider the phenomena to be an annoyance. It doesn’t bother me a lot, but I know that it bothers... more

Okay, I apologize for missing yesterday. I intended to write, but my husband has strep throat again (4th time since October) and my parents are here from Ohio. In addition, the painter was here to finish painting our house. It’s almost ten o’clock and I am well aware that day light savings is going to cause me to wake up before my brain wants me too.

I took my parents to Trader Joe’s today. They had never been and wanted to see what it’s like. My husband and I love Trader Joe’s. You... more

Last year I wrote about Mongolian Spots and I'm bringing it forward. I thought that all agencies warned their parents about Mongolian Spots, but from some of the messages I've seen posted recently - I guess not.

Link - Mongolian Spot Article

Link - Mongolian Spot - My Commentary

Some Mongolian Spots are pretty small and inconsequential, but many are very large and disturbing looking. From what I've been reading, Mongolian Spots will sometimes cause a child to be listed... more

Okay, so I came across a new Korean adoptee blog that I hadn’t seen before and she happened to have an interesting link on her site to a show called Justice Talking.

Link: Justice Talking

The link is to a program that was done on international adoption. The program is broken down into sections.

Conversation with a Family – This is an interview with a family who adopted from Russia. They talk about why they chose to adopt from Russia and how the family changed.

Interview... more

My son is finally starting to retain some of the information that we’ve been telling him since he was a baby. Some of it is by rote. He repeats over and over again – I am Korean. Mommy is Korean. Aunt C is Korean. Daddy is not Korean. Sometimes, he throws in that C (his plane-mate) is Korean. We have her picture on our refrigerator from Christmas. We know that the concept hasn’t really set in yet because he also insisted last week-end that his very blond little friend A was Korean too.

On of the things that we want our son to... more

I wrote that we attended a Korean new year party that the local Korean community hosts for families touched by Korean adoption. One thing I’ve noticed about these get-togethers is that most of the children are young. Most families seem to disappear by the time their oldest child hits their pre-teens.

I expect that the biggest reason is that it is much harder to get the pre-teen child to go to these events. They have other more pressing issues to worry about. What I don’t understand is why the parents stop coming too. Do they loose interest... more