This is the most important day in my life which i can remember.....

We left at around 11, heading for Suwon, where we were going to meet Min-Kyoung, the TV producer who made the documentary about me and the other European kads. After we hooked up with min-kyoung and her boyfriend, we drove to Kyungdong babies' home, the orphanage i stayed in for 3 months before i was adopted.

The staff knew i was coming, and they knew about the TV producer being there as well. It was very special to be back, I couldn't remember anything, but the original building was still there.

The director and some other of the staff welcomed us. The director was there even back in 1976 when I was in the orphanage, so she was very moved about me returning. Also the rest of the staff were very happy, but due to their lack of English and my lack of Korean, the communication was kind of bad. Luckily i had Shin Aey to translate for me.

I saw my file (and got a copy) from the time i came to the orphanage, and I found the name of the woman who brought me there, + her address! That is way more than i already had, when I contacted Holt, the adoption agency, some years ago, they told me all my files were damaged in a fire in the orphanage. There has never been any fire in Kyungdong babies' home, and all my files were there!!!!

According to my file i was probably born in 1974, not 75 as my official file say. My name Jung Ahn-Sun (or more correct Jong Ahn-Son) was given to me by the director, Jung (Chung) is her family name, and Ahn is because i came from Ahnyang city.

I also saw pictures from the period when I was there, but there weren't many, since I only stayed in the orphanage for 3 months. probably I wasn't on any of them.

I talked to the staff for a while, the director hugged me over and over, holding my hand most of the time. She gave me a necklace and an armband. I handed over the toys and clothes I had brought from Norway (the other half was given to Chechon Children's home the day before).

We got to play with the kids, and they were so cute. one little girl wouldn't let me go after I took her up, every time I tried to put her down she cried and clung to me...... She was about the same age I was when I was there.... Min-Kyoung videotaped most of my visit, and the kids were thrilled about seeing themselves on her little camera-screen.

I got to enter the room where I had slept, earlier called 'Chrysanthemum room', and I talked to two of the caretakers who were in the orphanage in 1976. None of them were in charge of me though.

I also got to see the youngest babies and hold them. The youngest was only a month old!

When we left the orphanage we decided to head for Ahnyang city, trying to locate the person and the address we had been given. But when we arrived, we couldn't find it, so we headed for the police station. Those who spoke Korean did all of the talking, I wish i knew what they were talking about. They explained the situation, Min-Kyoung caught most on tape, and the police searched through their database, trying to find the woman we were looking for.

After a while we found out that she had passed away in 1997, only 2 years ago. Note that this person was NOT my biological mother. But they managed to locate one of her sons, and the police guided us to his house, knocked on the door and explained the situation! they were very helpful, probably because of the presence of media.

The people we met were relatives of the named woman. Only her daughter-in-law were home, her husband was at work and wouldn't return untill 9 pm. At this time it was around 5 pm.

We were invited in and the woman called her husband at work. I found out that he could remember the baby-girl they had 'found', and they called me 'Pangool', meaning (jingle)bell! (not my name). She also called a lot of other people who might know more about me, and finally she found out that I had been taken by her husband's family to a Catholic church. The church wasn't too far from where the house used to be (but wasn't anymore), which we had no idea about. The address we were given was no longer valid, the sectors and addresses had been changed several times in the last 20 + years.

The woman came with us to the church, bringing her cell-phone. She told me (via the translators) that I was very brave to come that far to search for my roots, and she was moved to see me. The church was a huge building, with a large Jesus-statue on the roof. We entered the yard, and the woman went inside to talk to the staff. While waiting in the yard I saw this sign appearing just above the yard-wall: baby sale. I cracked up, what an ironic sign to post just above the place where I was brought in as an orphan!

We waited for a while, the woman talked to the staff, and told us to go out for dinner while she was calling around. No records were left in the church, they had been transferred to city-hall, and were probably not there anymore. So all they could do was trying to call people who might know more.

After we were done we returned, and there was a while to wait inside the church office. The woman and the staff had managed to find out about a case which could be mine, about a halmoni (grandmother) and her son, who gave up a child around the time I was brought in.

After several more phonecalls, one of the staff brought us to an older woman who might knew this halmoni. The man who guided us said he'd seen me as a baby and I looked the same! He could also recognize me from my referral pictures.

We finally found the older woman, she didn't know the halmoni we were looking for, but she took us to another of the women who might know more.

So we were on our way again. We found some older women sitting outside a house, and one of them was the one we were looking for. We explained the situation, and she said she could very well remember the halmoni with the little girl. When they told her that the girl was me, she really hugged me.

We went inside and she called some more people who might know where this halmoni might be. We couldn't find out anything, but she saw copies of my referral pictures, and said 'yes, that's her!' She also told me that I had an 'opa' (older brother, about 2 years older than me), and one of my pictures looked a lot like him.

According to this woman, my father was the oldest son. Everyone said 'umma' (my mother) was a very nice person. My father was in some kind of trouble, probably had a car-accident and ended in jail. At least he was often gone/away from my mother.

Most of the conversation was in Korean, but my friends tried to translate for me as best they could. I probably lost a lot of details, but I understood that umma had to work a lot to support us (be gone from us), and one day halmoni refused her to come home, since she had already given away my brother, and planned to get rid of me too.

My brother was given up first, the day after umma left. The woman we talked to had been asked to help placing me in an orphanage, but refused. Instead I was taken to the person mentioned in my file (the mother-in-law of the woman who decided to help us search), handed over to her, and she took me to this Catholic church, who again took me to the orphanage.

After hearing all this, I was pretty sure that this story was mine and I wasn't mixed up with some other orphan. So many details came up, linked to eachother.

I found out that I probably am older than my registered date, the old woman said I was about 2 (Western age, 3 Korean age) when I was given to the orphanage, while my file says 1. So I guess I really am born in 1974. My brother had been sent to live with a school-teacher in Inchon, a coastal city.

My mother had been very sad and upset about losing us, and probably didn't know anything about what happened. Halmoni and her family moved shortly after, to 'escape' from my father, who was a shame for the family (since he was in jail).

We went back to the church, since many people said they could remember my halmoni, but not her name. They went through lists, the pastor came down himself, a lot of people got involved in this search, and everyone were more than helpful.

My halmoni had been observed 10 years ago in a nearby church, with a congregation of 20 000! Some people from the first church went with us and we drove to the other church, talking to the pastor and others of the staff. More phonecalls were made, but no one could remember my halmonis name.

Finally we had to leave, it was over midnight, we'd been searching for more than 12 hours, and Min-Kyoung had to get ready for the morning-show at KBS (Korean TV station)! Both pastors promised to read up an announcement the next day at morning mass, hoping that someone would recognize my halmoni.

By the time we got back it was 1 am, and we were all tired. I was in chock after really finding out more about me and my background!!! I had no information at all before I went to the orphanage, and in one day I am really close to finding my own halmoni!

I wouldn't be able to do all this without my fantastic 'crew' of helpers, my very good friends. I am very grateful for their efforts, they sacrificed their entire day off to help me, They have called around, talked to a lot of people and been amazing! The daughter-in-law of the person who gave me to the church were with us for over 7 hours, I didn't even know her and she wasn't prepared at all! Her involvement was the most incredible of all.

I know that many of these 'doors' were open to me because I had media with me. I doubt that the police would be so helpful if I hadn't gone public with my story and brought a producer. so her PSB/KBS employment was defenetely powerful.

Time was working against me, I had to leave Korea before I was able to find any of my relatives. But the search is going on, and I will return in not too long, and hopefully I'll be reunited with my mother, father, brother and the rest of my family.

Anyway, at least I know a lot more than I ever imagined, about myself, why I was put up for adoption, who my parents were + +.

The entire story, incl. photos, can be viewed at Sunny's World

sunny jo pangool