After attending the Seattle mini-gathering last May and being around other KAD’s, it gave me courage to try the birth search process again….
Once, I got back from the gathering I spent the next few months talking to my adoptive dad about giving another shot at searching. My adoptive parents and even the rest of the family has always been supportive about my adoption. My family has always talked about my adoption and hoped that someday I would want to search for my biological parents.
After talking to some other KAD’s online that have already done the birth search, I was given some useful information on how I should go about starting the search….
August of 2006, I sent Holt Korea an e-mail explaining I first wanted another copy of my adoption file and maybe pursue a birth search. A few days later I received an e-mail back from a socialworker, basically saying that she knows exactly what I want and she would rather start the birth search process. I heard back from the socialworker within few weeks or so saying she was able to find my birthmother. I was very shocked by how quickly she was able to find my birthmother, because I thought it would most likely take several months to maybe a year before I would know anything. After the socialworker let me know that my bio-mom wanted to have some contact with me…it was on to the next step.
I’m sure most KAD’s can sympathize with the struggles of not knowing what to write at first for the letter that the socialworker asks you to write to your birthmother/father. I think I spent half an hour just staring at the computer screen, before I started writing the letter.
The day I received a letter from my birthmother in the mail, was overwhelming. The short but very sweet letter was extremely touching. My adoptive parents were touched by the short message my birthmother wrote in the letter for them.
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I actually tried to do a birth search back in 2002, but didn’t get too far with it. At that time I was 19 years old and I was told by the U.S agency I wasn’t old enough to search. According to Catholic Charities in Baltimore, maryland you have to be 21 yrs old to do a birth search. After learning that I just didn’t really have motivation to pursue a search in a few years. At that point I was really only wanting to do a search, to get some information on my birth families medical history.
