When I Arrived…

I arrived from Korea in 1975. My sister arrived from Korea in 1984. My son arrived from Korea in 2004. Together, we spanned three decades of Korean arrivals.

When I was little, I used to ask my mother to tell me the story of my arrival over and over again. I loved the story. Of course, now that I’m older, I realize that there were parts of the story that I didn’t have – simple things, like how my parents miraculously appeared at Chicago O’Hare.

One of the things that hasn’t changed over he last three decades is escorting. All three of us were escorted to the United States.

My parents flew alone to Chicago O’Hare to pick me up. They arrived at the airport and there was no one to greet them. The agency had given them the paperwork and that was their proof that they could take me home. Because this was pre-9/11, they were able to go all the way up to the gate to wait for the plane.

My mother tells the story with more flare, but here we go…

They had been waiting for my plane to come in. It finally landed and all of the people left the plane, but there were no babies. All of the waiting couples were watching for the babies. Finally, there were no people coming out of the plane and the pilot came to the entrance. “Why is everyone waiting here?” He asked.

“We’re waiting for babies,” the parents said.

“Babies?” The pilot asked. “There are no babies on this plane.” Oh no. But before the parents could get too worked up, they carried the babies off the plane and there I was. My mother says that she recognized me right away from my picture. My parents had to show their identification and they matched their information and paperwork with my wristband.

My mother tells me that the arrival had brought spectators from all over the airport. Because everything in 1975 was still open, there were a lot of people who were waiting for people or who were between flights who wanted to watch. Specifically, my mother remembers that people offered to take pictures and that one woman told her that she hoped we had a nice life.

They didn’t have to worry about customs when I arrived because my flight wasn’t a non-stop flight so I had already gone though customs when we stopped in Seattle. After my arrival, they flew home to Ohio and that (as they say) was that.

Parts 2 and 3, coming soon. If you would like to comment, but not on this site, please e-mail me at adoptkoreablog@adoptionmail.com.