Adapted Podcast

Korean adoptee Corissa Saint Laurent, 48, struggled with alcohol addiction as a young person after she felt abandoned by her adoptive mother. Just before she became a mother herself, she found her Korean mother, miraculously living not far from where she had been adopted to in New England. Reuniting with her eomma has closed a circle of pain for her.

What if you only discovered you were adopted in your 30s? Kristen Choi, 33, or 최우경, learned the truth about being adopted from Korea only a year ago, and is still unpacking what this new information means. Choi has learned she once had a different name, Choi Bo-mi, and is figuring out how to embrace a new identity as an adopted person, as well as exploring the adoptee community for the first time.

For so many Korean adoptees, little if any information is ever known about one's biological family, either because of empty case files or redaction of information because of Korean privacy laws that protect the relinquishing family. But what if one had a quasi-open adoption, where your adoptive father had met your biological mother and together they had arranged the adoption? That is the life story of Han Yong Wunrow, 27, who shares more about the unusual adoption story, and even more unusual that his white adoptive parents made Korean culture and interest in the Korean diaspora so central to their own lives.

Justin Snyder, 35, is a dreamer and a seeker. He was adopted from Korea by parents in West Virginia and grew up in a small town only to now have traveled the world in search of meaning, spirituality and innovative thinking. Snyder embarked on his own adoptee journey in 2016 when he traveled back to Korea to attend The Gathering and learn more about his origins.