Korean-American Adoptee Needs Help Locating His Sister
Via a reader tip comes this blog posting from a Korean-American adoptee who was born in Korea and abandoned by his mother on the streets of Busan before being sent to an orphanage. He was adopted by an American family, but now needs help locating his sister:
I have tried before to locate my sister. I have failed. Part of me wants to never try again. A lot of me hates that part of me. I will try again because there is always a chance she might see this. One can hope.
My name is Jason Chandler Cushman and I was born in Pusan, South Korea in 1981. I have a sister who is a few years older me. I believe she is probably 37 now and her name was Ahn Jung Hee, my birth mother’s name is Kim Ie Soo. Our mother left us on a street when we were young. I was 2 years old and my sister was 5 I believe. We were taken to an orphanage and my mother later returned for only my sister. That was the last time I saw her. I found this out when I returned to Korea in 2000 during a Holt International Motherland tour. I was 18 years old at the time.
In 2002 I pulled a prodigal son and asked my father for the rest of my college tuition so that I could return to Korea to find the rest of the answers from my 2000 trip. I was determined to not return until I found them. I did not find my family, but I found an answer. A simple one from my birth mother. “Stop trying to see us and do not try to find your sister. She is still with me.” My sister was probably 23 at the time.
I am now 34 years old and have long since given up most hope of seeing them. But then I began this blog in 2013 and created a realistic way of reaching them. If they care to be found and if anyone cares to share my story so that my sister might see it. My blog has been viewed over 300,000 times from South Korea alone. I pray that maybe one of those people can share my story in such a manner that it might be seen by the one I seek. [An Opinionated Man]
You can read more at the link to include additional photos in an effort to help contact his sister.
So many Korean kids who were reported by their loving parents as missing, who were then found overseas, as adoptees instead.
https://jjtrenka.wordpress.com/2012/12/31/police-web-site-for-missing-people/#comments
Jane Jeong Trenka, Korean adoptee exposing the multi-million dollar adoption baby for sale industry
http://www.pressian.com/news/article.html?no=5697
Some big eye opening facts here.
– each Korean adoptees are sold for $38,000 US dollars.
– 19 adopted Russian kids in America were murdered by their adopting American parents in 2012
– 10.5% of South Korean kids live in poverty, yet in America, 20.6% of American kids live in poverty. Americans are in no shape to adopt South Korean kids when so many more of their own kids live in poverty.
– there are over 405,000 American born kids who are left in social services. Out of that there are over 104,000 American kids waiting to be adopted, while 58,000 American kids live in orphanages. Compared to this, there are only 16,500 Korean kids living in orphanages as of 2012.
– In 2010, 98 Korean kids were sent to Canada for adoption, South Korea becoming the 7th largest donor country. However, there were 148 American kids who were sent to Canada as adoptees, making the US, the third largest donor to Canada.
-So why do Americans insist on adopting from abroad when they have so many of their unwanted kids waiting to be adopted? If they adopted domestically, the cost would have been only $5000. But Americans were willing to pay $50,000 for Russian and $38,000 for Korean kids. Why? One reason is that if they adopt internationally, the bond between the adoptees and their birth parents would be completely broken, as blood parents from those countries have zero rights to later on see their children if they wish to. On the other hand, American blood parents who give up their children, are protected by the US law, in which they have the right to keep their contacts with their children that they put up adoption. Second reason is the huge industrial distribution and marketing industry that has been built up by selling international adoptions to Americans and Westerners. Those people who are involved in this industry have a huge monetary stake in protecting and promoting unfettered and unregulated international adoptions. Therefore, they will be the first ones to claim that Russia and South Korea are trying prevent international adoptions, and that orphan children are being hurt in those countries. Yet the same organizations say nothing and do nothing about the plight of their own orphaned kids in America. Why? Because the domestic adoptions are far less lucrative and there are too many regulations for these organizations and it’s too much hassle for them to complete the paperworks for domestic adoptions. Therefore they encourage international adoptions for American couples instead, who also like the ideal because they can choose, mix and match their custom made babies in terms of race, ethnicity, and nationality. Americans can go on international child shopping.
– in 2012, the amount dollar transaction for South Korean adoptee kids sent to America was worth $127 million in total. Is this really about helping and loving kids, or is this about selling and buying Korean children?
Were you stolen, Tom?
Thanks for posting this, GI Korea. 🙂
I understand that Koreans and Americans feel differently about many issues. Family matters especially. One merely has to half-watch a few thousand hours of Korean dramas from OnDemand or the like to get the message that stuff that would be open in one country is taboo in the other.
I just noticed I don’t see the link?
He edited with a little more information, now:
http://aopinionatedman.com/2015/09/09/asking-for-help-please-share-and-help-me-find-my-sister/
@5, Liz, thanks for pointing out the missing link. I have since added it to the posting. 🙂
Thank you for sharing my info here!
@Tom my mother left me on a street buddy. Your facts mean nothing in the current context. Adoption is a good thing and auto-naysayers like you are amusing considering you never once spent a day in an orphange guy.
Opinionated Man – Tom claims that he was born in Korea and adopted by Canadians. That’s probably just another line of the BS he spews here on a regular basis though.