Your Blood Is My Blood

Why do you blog? Well, that is a great question that many have asked me since I started my own blog last April, 2009. If you have read "My Story" you know that I was one of the early Korean Adoptees who left the Land of the Morning Calm to other lands. My American father was of Apache/Mexican/Spanish heritage and my Korean mother gave me her family name, JUN.

I grew up in Los Angeles area, at first in mostly 'white suburan' areas then in mixed neighborhoods. I was always mistaken for a 'Mestizo' (Spanish mixed-blood) and some even asked "what Native American tribe do you belong to", and I did not know. I would give 'my story' of adoption from Korean, no not Japanese, or Chinese, the country in-between.

My life has been quite unusual, even weird but exciting. I have done many jobs, from dish washing, carpentry, to acting in B-movies in the Philippines, and for the last 12 years taught English to my mother's people. I tried to learn Korean, and thought since I left at five years old it would 'magically' come back to me. Alas, I gave up trying to learn more than survival phrases after most Koreans looked shocked that the foreign guy is trying to speak  "their language".

Who am I? I am proud to be an American by naturalization, served in the U.S. Marine Corps in Vietnam, consider myself a 'compassionate Republican'. Even after 14 years of living in Korea, I know that my identity as a Korean is very limited. Korean people do not consider me, well, to be blunt, a "real Korean".

Since 1995 I have lived here in Seoul, Republic of Korea, a land torn in two by war. I was only going to stay a year but couldn't leave for many reasons. I got involved with the beginnings of an adoptee's group started by Ami Nafzger and a group of fellow adoptees from Europe and the Americas.

Global Oversea's Adoptee's Link just celebrated in 2008 their tenth anniversary of helping adoptees when they come to their motherland in search of identity with Korea and some to look into searching for their birth family. I was one of the "founding members" yet did nothing more than come to all the meetings. Ami and others did most of the work to bring recognition from the Korean government.

I married a Korean woman in 2005, a 'public servant' who carries a real revolver, (I am not supposed to tell you she is a Lieutenant in the National Police Force...Oops). I missed several GOA'L conventions and monthly meetings because we lived 2 hours out of Seoul. I thought I am now just too old for the mostly 20's to 30's generation of adoptees coming here.

"Just when I thought I was out, they pulled me back in." Al Pacino says in The God-Father II. Last year, I met a Domestic Korean Adoptee who recently discovered late in life that she had been adopted. It was quite a shock to her when her natural sister called her, after finding paperwork of her being given away secretly. I discovered that there is a Korean folk story of "The Abandoned Princess-Bari Gong Ju" who was literally thrown away by a Chosen King because she was an unlucky 7th daughter. She was found by a childless old couple and raised up, to be found herself by her birth sister taken back to the palace and save her father and mother. Every child in Korea has heard this story. 

I began to search the internet on adoption, abortion, domestic and overseas adoption, open and closed adoptions, etc. The more I studied the more complex this thing of ours-adoption became to me. So much information, what could I do with it? I read numerous 'adoptee's blogs' both Pro and Con on adoption, and wondered, "What do I do with all this knowledge...I don't know how to 'blog'!"

Then I came across "Your Blood is My Blood" (first post) a new blog done by a "Spoken Word artist", a young American woman who is a domestic adoptee herself. Jessenia is so fresh, outspoken, sure of herself, speaks out of her heart, and just down right 'on target', she blew my doors off. Jessenia has been changing some lives forever as she documents her search and her life's journey, "born in her womb, raised by the streets".

It was her title, Your Blood is My Blood that got my attention first. I had been learning how the new science of genetics has been able to distinguish the differences of ethnic groups. I had come to the discovery that my own blood, my genetic makeup has BOTH the complete DNA of my birth mother and father. Different genes are 'turned on or off' but the DNA "Markers" are present for all our ancestors and this is how they can trace backwards to 'common ancestors'. It is very complex yet I knew this one fact: The blood (genes) of my Korean natural/birth mother IS MY BLOOD. The blood of all mankind is related back to two, the scientist even call them Adam and Eve.

I listened to Jessenia's video Day One...My Journey, I'm Ready as she bravely launched her search. WOW, if she could do this, so could I. So I plunged into the fray!!!  Jessenia is presently in Spain, the country that made the Philippines it's "colony" for 350 years, and I am visiting my old (very old) friends, meeting new friends, and wondering what will be in my future. Go check out this fresh, meaningful "voice of the adoptee's"  'cause she be doing it very well, you will be diggin' what she's saying. Her's is just another voice from "This Thing of Ours-Adoption". Jessenia is MY SISTER in the blogosphere and encouraged me to put out my own voice.

The Korean War Baby, 'we be blogging' from the "streets of passion"-Manila, Philippines. A shout out to all of Jessenia's friends who also do some amazing blogs! Hey, if you are looking into This Thing of Ours-Adoption, read and read, you will find your own path to healing and understanding. Keep on truckin'!!