MN adoptees respond to fraud reports in South Korean adoption programs

Erin Huppert who was adopted from South Korea as an infant wasn t much interested in learning more about her pre-adoption history But the St Paul resident is reconsidering that now I have never had any interest in finding anything out about my biological family or trying to contact them in any way Huppert noted I had inevitably held the opinion that they made the decisions they needed to make at the time and that my family was my American adopted family And it really only has been in light of the stories over the last couple of months that I m now reevaluating everything Those stories are from an Associated Press inspection circulated last year looking into fraudulent adoption practices that facilitated the adoption of thousands of Korean children into families around the world in the years following the Korean War After a nearly three-year analysis a South Korean commission in late March revealed that the regime bears responsibility for facilitating a venture with widespread fraud and abuse enabled by private agencies that violated children s human rights It s a landmark acknowledgment of something long suspected among Korean adoptees experts say Prior to the commission sharing its findings Huppert explained that while she has at times wondered if what she s known about her background prior to her adoption is true or to what degree her confidence in that information has substantially dropped And both I and my adoptive parents have all agreed that I should likely reevaluate and reconsider my interest in reaching out if for no other reason than the idea that there are two people over in South Korea who maybe have been looking for their child this entire time It s absolutely heart-wrenching Huppert revealed Erin Huppert who was adopted from South Korea in the early s looks through her adoption paperwork at her St Paul home on Friday March John Autey Pioneer Press adoptees Since the s an estimated to children have been adopted from South Korea by American parents in Minnesota according to MNopedia a website run by the Minnesota Historical Society It s just a fraction of the more than Korean adoptees around the world mostly adopted in the s and s But it makes Minnesota the state with the highest concentration of Korean adoptees in the U S Several organizations have facilitated those adoptions in the state including St Paul-based Children s Home Society which began adoptions from South Korea in the late s and Lutheran Social Function of Minnesota The two organizations formed a partnership and combined adoption services in and disclosed earlier this month that they will merge On Thursday they circulated a declaration on the commission s findings and shared guidance available to adoptees both with and outside of CHS LSS Here at Children s Home and LSS we understand the history complexity and emotions associated with this analysis by the South Korean regime and want to acknowledge the weight and impact of these findings on adoptees birth families adoptive families and their loved ones the announcement declared It added The best interest of each child is at the center of our work We want adoptees and families to know that we are here for them and want to be a place of endorsement guidance and consultation In July the Korean authorities is expected to begin overseeing adoption and post-adoption services directly previously a responsibility of Korean agencies according to CHS LSS The oversight of South Korean adoption records is moving from the Korean adoption agencies to the National Center for the Rights of the Child NCRC To conduct a search that includes your South Korean adoption record you will need to petition the NCRC for these services directly At this time we do not know how long it will take to access South Korean search services CHS LSS stated Thursday Truth and Reconciliation Commission Chairperson Park Sun Young right comforts adoptee Yooree Kim during a press conference in Seoul South Korea Wednesday March AP Photo Ahn Young-joon The study The adoption industry grew out of the aftermath of the Korean War in the s when Americans adopted biracial children born to Korean women and Western soldiers As the country made its way out of poverty South Korea continued to rely on private adoption agencies to bring millions of dollars into the country and saved even more by not growing its own child welfare scheme South Korea s then-military governments saw several benefits to international adoption allowing the country to reduce the number of children to care for erase the social trouble of unwed mothers and strengthen its relationships with Western countries Agencies registered bulk adoptees as abandoned orphans revealed in the streets making their origins intricate or impossible to track down when various certainly had identifiable relatives In dozens of the cases examined by the AP which worked with PBS s Frontline to produce a documentary on the findings children were kidnapped off the streets and sent abroad and a multitude of parents claimed they were described their newborns were dead or too sick to survive Minnesota history Children s Home Society began doing adoptions with South Korea in the late s according to Kristina Berg CHS senior director of adoption and foster care services and adoption programs with South Korea formally began in for CHS and in for Lutheran Social Amenity Since there have been adoptions from South Korea through Children s Home according to Berg Of those adoptions occurred between and I think it s a complex piece because a lot of us here in the present were not practicing at the time but we are doing an internal audit of our records and our practice at the time Berg revealed in an interview with the Pioneer Press in late January We ve certainly seen an increase in requests for post-adoption utility endorsement and have had conversations with adoptees and adoptive parents both discussing the AP and the research and additional articles discussing their individual circumstances providing both agency and non-agency guidance Berg explained As an adoption provision provider Children s Home trusts the governing personnel of each country to ensure guidelines are met and makes efforts to partner with ethical organizations and countries Berg noted in a later email The organization also makes sure to follow up when concerns are heard and to adjust practices or close programs when needed she added The agency began to offer post-adoption services with South Korea in the s according to Berg And we have a lot of now adoptees and those with lived experience on our organization Berg noted I believe about of our unit has a close personal connection to adoption and that s including our staff leadership board members It includes Korean and other domestic and international adoptees The AP and Frontline inquiry underscores the importance of the Hague Convention on the Protection of Children which the United States implemented in and South Korea is set to do in according to Berg The Hague Adoption Convention is an international treaty meant to safeguard children and families in intercountry adoptions Doubt questions According to Huppert s adoption records her biological parents were young and unmarried with families who did not advocacy their relationship when she was put up for adoption I think in light of the reporting from the Associated Press and the subsequent reports it s pretty well it is clear to me that I should question how true particular of those details are because it looks very similar to the same narratives that have been produced at a very high volume from those agencies Huppert declared Related Articles MnDOT announces state construction projects After Trump cuts fate of strength assistance scheme in question in Minnesota Como Park Zoo visitors witness birth of baby sloth Faculty accuse UMN leadership of censorship over Gaza St Paul City Council OKs -day extension for trash site The findings have made adoptee Anna Lund who grew up in Minneapolis question parts of her background as well As a teenager Lund visited South Korea with her mother and sister and met the woman who fostered her before her adoption I mean after that reporting came out I even started to question like Was that really my foster mother Or was this just selected lady that they brought in Lund disclosed Concerns of fraud are not new But perceptions of how adoptees should feel about their adoption can be a barrier to those concerns noted Kim Park Nelson an associate professor of ethnic studies at Winona State University whose research specializes in transnational adult adoptees in the United States Because numerous people see adoption as an overall good with a focus on a birth mother giving her baby a better life and adoptive parents doing something selfless the adopted child is kind of forgotten Lund commented And they re almost seen as like a blank slate and now they can go and they can live with this family and everything s great for them And I think that what they ve lost is not really considered as much Lund revealed Adoption inherently involves loss something that adoptees and their families need to manage declared Richard Lee a University of Minnesota psychology professor who studies international adoption In the last several decades countless adoptees have developed adoptee-focused organizations that can also help other adoptees process their response to the findings Lee disclosed And they ve been pushing hard on these issues So for them this review is something that they ve been asking for for decades and it s a validation of their efforts that they ve put in in the face of so much opposition from adoption agencies governments and countless adoptive families Lee noted Emotional touchstones Adoptees can go through a mix of emotions upon finding out the information they ve been notified about their background may be false experts say Researcher JaeRan Kim is working on an adoptee consciousness model that looks at the different touchstones adoptees might experience in adulthood related to their adoption Kim is a faculty member at the University of Washington Tacoma and researcher who focuses on post-adoption well-being particularly among adult adoptees and grew up in Minnesota One touchstone is called rupture which can include when an adoptee finds out something isn t the way they thought it was Kim announced Adoptees also can experience dissonance Kim mentioned And dissonance is that real internal struggle What am I supposed to believe now Who can I trust How do I manage all these different feelings that I have And for particular adoptees they shut down and it s too overwhelming and too much and so then they just want to be like I don t want to think about it anymore I m just going to pretend I don t know Kim noted Other adoptees might decide to look more into their background and its context Several go into activism or research Others become opposed to adoption and become adoption abolitionists Kim explained Because the narrative around adoption is often that it was in the best interest of the child selected adoptees may find it hard to find the right patronage for themselves or to know that their feelings around their adoption are valid especially when reconciling what was supposed to be a good thing for them with serious ethical issues Kim announced Even formal mental wellbeing sponsorship can be inadequate if the provider is not equipped to properly work with adoptees Kim announced Guidance developed by other adoptees such as help groups or mutual aid can be a good way for adoptees to find specific assistance Kim disclosed And I think that there s been a lot of talk around adoption-competent mental vitality and I think we re still trying to figure out what that is because so much of that has been focused on helping adoptive families with younger children who might be struggling but there hasn t been as much focus on their therapists and mental soundness clinicians really being able to address adult adoptees who are finding out these issues around their own adoption Kim mentioned Next policies South Korea s Truth and Reconciliation Commission in late March recommended that the leadership issue an official apology over the identified problems and address grievances as well as investigate citizenship gaps among adoptees sent to the United States and work to assist those without citizenship who may number in the thousands the Associated Press stated When it comes to what Huppert would like to hear from agencies like Children s Home Society it would be an apology and accountability Related Articles Joe Soucheray Test the sirens The season of Trash Emergencies is upon us Live reading of Great Gatsby kicks off events marking th anniversary MnDOT announces state construction projects Letters Yet again the same old DFL argument for higher taxes St Paul resident federally indicted in MS- gang-related murder in Florida I know that there are at least a few instances where they genuinely did not know that this was happening that they were acting in good faith Huppert disclosed But I do have to wonder at what point if ever they thought about the volume of children coming through this process over the unit of years and didn t once wonder whether there was anything nefarious going on Reforms in South Korea such as a law requiring foreign adoptions to go through family courts have led to vital declines in the country s intercountry adoptions Only South Korean children were adopted abroad in the AP informed Adoption is more complex than it has often historically been portrayed making its impacts complex as well It s life experience so it s complicated Park Nelson revealed And I think that the stories that have come out and the research that s just come out about those experiences really provide a few solid evidence for people to understand the adoption process differently and to understand it not just as this wonderful way that people without children can have children and do this like basically charity work to save children who are in bad situations but that we re real people and we have real lives Park Nelson declared