Search and Reunion in South Korea

Kawan: A Story of Search and Reunion in South Korea

Kawan was adopted from South Korea just before she turned 3 and grew up with a loving Massachusetts family. When she was 31, she gave birth to her son and started wondering about her own birth mother. 

“I think part of me wanted to see if she was okay. I don’t think I’d be okay if I had to give up my little boy,” she says. “The other part of me wanted her to know I was okay, too.” 

Because Wide Horizons For Children recognizes that a family’s journey doesn’t stop at the point of adoption, we offer a range of services for adoptees like Kawan.

Her search efforts started with email messages to her birth family, which Wide Horizons For Children helped to translate. Kawan learned her birth mother was happy and curious to know more about her, too.

Motherhood changes you. How could I not wonder? Knowing that, and having my own life full of love, made our meeting more of a confirmation that we could just be happy for one another.

Kawan, After the Birth of Her Son

In South Korea, the pair were introduced through a translator, followed by a reunion with six more members of her biological family. “That was the most amazing part of the trip,” Kawan says. “She hadn’t mentioned that her family knew about me, let alone accepted me and wanted to meet me. I had come with the expectation of meeting my birth mother … and instead got an entire family!”

Kawan spent several days getting to know her birth family. Now she understands more about where she came from — which is helping her chart her own family’s future course.