The Past and the Future of International Adoption: An Expert's ...

1. Tell us first please your personal experience with adoption. I know that you are an adoptee, briefly what is your story?

My personal experience regarding adoption began in August 1955 when I was born to an unwed mother in Taejon, South Korea.? My father was likely a military/foreign born man that had a relationship with my birth mother.? Since the country of South Korea was struggling within the confines of a postwar economy and social structure, my mother had very little help while trying to raise me.? Though I have no details, she was probably expelled from her family and was left to raising me while living on the streets or shelters of South Korea and Seoul.? She had moved to Seoul because of anonymity and a greater level of humanitarian aid being provided by organizations such as World Vision.? This was the time that Bill Pierce began World Vision?s ministry in South Korea along with Harry Holt and his efforts to find homes for the orphans left in South Korea? resulting in what is now today known as Holt International.

Because of rampant illness within the country, my mother decided to take me to an orphanage in Seoul in order to have a better chance at surviving a number of diseases that claimed many children (Chicken Pox, Measles and Mumps).? Unfortunately, these diseases were also running through the orphanages in epidemic proportions.

Concurrently, in Omaha, NE, Dr. and Mrs. Robert Brown had just lost a child during childbirth due to the inability to breath independently after being born.? Because of the Brown?s commitment to provide a family to a child that might not otherwise have the opportunity to thrive in a family environment, they reached out to Dr. Jack Falkenberg in Kissimmee, FL, who was working with humanitarian/non-profit organizations in Korea.? He directed the Brown?s to Rev. Charles Stokes (Methodist Seminary, Seoul, Korea) who asked Dr. Stokes to see if he could help find a child who needed a home.? Dr. Stokes went to a few orphanages and looked down the many rows of cribs to identify a little boy that could use a home.? He wrote a letter to the Brown?s and let them know he was going to begin the paperwork in order to determine what needed to happen to facilitate the adoption.? A week later, the Brown?s received a letter telling them of the good news!? Two days afterward, they received a phone call from Dr. Stokes regretfully telling them that the little boy in the orphanage, that he had chosen, had died the day before and that he wanted to let them know how sorry he was.? A few weeks later the Brown?s decided to have Dr. Stokes go back to the orphanage and find another child.? This time, when he arrived at the orphanage, Dr. Stokes chose me as the Brown?s adopted child.? Five months later I was on a plane to Omaha, NE to begin my new life!

There was very little interest on my part to explore much of my past because South Korea growing up in Nebraska.? When I went to college I was introduced to more of the Korean culture through friends. I finished college and went to work in Southern California after which I was married and began to think about a family. After numerous tries to begin a family, my wife and I decided to look into adoption. My adopted mother noted that Dr. Stokes was retired but was still alive, so I contacted him.? He said he would contact his associates still in South Korea and let me know what would be the best way to proceed.? I was not adopted through an agency but rather through the private channels I outlined earlier.? Dr. Stokes wrote me a letter and said that the? only agency to use would be Holt International. I began the process and have two adult adopted children from South Korea. They are both a blessing and have enriched my life and helped me see God?s hand in it all!

What has brought me to this point in my opinions of adoption is the fact that I served on Holt International?s Board of Directors, was the Chairman of the Board from 2006-2008 and was also the President/CEO from 2008-2011.? I have a different perspective than most regarding international adoption and want to share it with you through this article.

2. What was your professional experience with adoption?

My professional experience with adoption is also my experience at an advocacy/management level with international adoption.? I was elected to the Holt International Children?s Services Board of Directors in the Fall of 1999.? I served as a director until Fall of 2006 when I was elected as? Board Chair.? At the end of my tenure as Chairman, I was asked to be the President/CEO of Holt International.? I served as President/CEO until Fall 2011.? During my tenure I was elected to the Board of Directors at Interaction, Both Ends Burning Campaign and Rofori Corporation.? Of note, the Interaction organization is the largest collection of humanitarian aid organizations in the world.? Membership includes over 200 non-governmental organizations including, World Vision, Save The Children, United Nations Foundation and Oxfam.

3. I will always be grateful to Holt for facilitating the adoption process of my three children. I?m often asked though why after the Eurasian orphan crisis was over, why Holt continued to facilitate adoptions from Korea?

After the war in Korea was over, there were many Eurasian/Amerasian children left to fend for themselves or were at the mercy of a humanitarian effort that often fell terribly short in supporting the children?s needs.? The truth is that in any country that the United States went to war in, there were many children of mixed race that were left behind, ie. Vietnam, Korea, Western Europe. The difference is that in Western Europe, those children looked like any child in any U.S. city.? When the children are of defined racial facial/body differences, the country that the children are left in subjects all children that are not of a specific family line, to the prejudices that have been in place over thousands of years. No amount of ?good will? can overcome this type of bias.

4. Tell us a little bit about what you saw as you traveled around the world visiting different countries and orphanages.

There continues to be some type of concerted effort in the adoption world to help children find the ?right? type of home so that they can live a life of meaning on some level. There is not a country on this planet that can take care of all children within their borders. ?It?s an impossibility! The governments themselves are underfunded and lack direction.? Overseas organizations (such as U.S. humanitarian organizations) use an imperialistic mindset and don?t take time to learn a culture in which to work within both structurally and socially.? There have literally been billions of dollars spent on needless projects in Africa and Asia.? The other issue is that all of the aid and help are fragmented. There is no voice that singularly stands out and clearly directs the organizations toward bettering lives.? These organizations need to take a handful of four or five initiatives and make them functional.? For example, if Heifer International could abolish world hunger by 2025, World Vision could take advantage of Heifer?s structure and feed the people in the programs that they manage through Heifer.? If Charity Water were to make clean water a possibility to over 75% of the world, Physicians for Peace could perform surgeries and know that the patient won?t die of infection three weeks after the surgery due to unclean water.? Yet, these organizations raise money, manage, create infrastructure internationally all independently.? It was comical to see another employee in an international airport leaving/arriving as I left knowing that they were going to see the same governmental officials as I had just seen in their upcoming visit.? Lack of cross-organizational coordination is a huge issue!

5. There is a lot of conflicting numbers about how many orphans there are in the world, can you clarify that?

Most statistics you see these days are a reflection of how the reporting agency wants things to look to the public and those that view the numbers.? UNICEF, with it?s large scope and function, counts orphans as those vulnerable children that have lost at least one parent.? In this case, if a mother is watching over the children and the father has gone to another city/country to work and may not come back for years, that child has been counted as a ?vulnerable? child translating into ?orphan? in communication.? The child still has the birth mother there but the larger playing field makes UNICEF?s work seen expansive.? International adoption agencies usually use a more focused criteria.? For example, if an abandoned child has no caretaker, then he/she is orphaned and in need of placement into a home.? Sometimes the child is adopted in country, domestically, or the child is placed into the United States.? It all depends on what the organization wants to say.? If an organization wants to expand it?s services, that organization may say it has discovered more children to feed and clothe although some of those children may not be orphaned but they are on some level ?vulnerable? to abandonment in the long run.? Foster care is usually a short term fix because foster parents usually have families of their own and are taking the child into their home for a finite time period.

6. In my understanding of international adoption, there needs to be some world events, like the Korean War or China?s one child policy to create large numbers of children that need to be adopted. What is the current state of international adoption and is there anything that might precipitate the large numbers of children being adopted from their countries?

Through history, families have reacted positively to war/famine/natural disasters, by opening their homes for children to become part of these families.? In reality, the ongoing need for adoption never stops or starts.? It just continues to be a problem.? When the ?tsunami? his on Christmas Day in Thailand, many adoption agencies were flooded with calls to find out what would happen to the children that were orphaned.? I can tell you that not many children were adopted through that natural disaster.? Most of the children were taken in by family/friends and provided a home within their country.? It?s a cultural issue that allows children to find their own level of care.? For some reason many in the western cultures think they know better but all of these types of issues have been going on for centuries.? In the instance of Korea after the war, Korea was a war torn mess.? The Japanese had occupied Korea just before the North Koreans/Chinese attacked. In fact, the Japanese made the Koreans change their names to Japanese names to make it easier to occupy South Korea.? By the time the war was over, South Korea couldn?t take care of the adults, much less the children.? There were multi-ethnic children in the streets and there were Korean children who had nobody in the country to care for them.? The only option was to look for help and World Vision and Holt International provided an opportunity to help.? Adoption in South Korea will ultimately come to a halt.? But South Korea also acknowledges that there are many children that still are born to unwed mothers and need a family.? I credit them for that admission!? Culturally, Koreans have a difficult time raising someone else?s child.

7. Whenever I hear the words ?adoption industry,? I am somewhat mystified by these words and the implication that there are huge profits to be made from this industry. Do you agree with this?

To consider adoption as a ?profitable? industry is a misnomer at best and a serious error in rationality at the worst!? Most of the costs to adopt are hard costs that have been set by either the sending country or by processes through the agency.? There are organizations that supplement the costs of international adoption for the adopting family (Shohanna?s Hope).? Many organizations that facilitate adoption also try to perform humanitarian work within the countries that they bring children from.? For example,? Ethiopia allows an agency to place Ethiopian children only if the organization is willing to create infrastructure and programs that will help with the development of the country as a whole.? Hospitals, schools and homes have all been built as a result of adoptions being completed with children from Ethiopia.? When a person looks at a non-profit?s tax return (Form 990) it will show where the money is spent.? You can?t be a? 501C3 organization without posting the return.? Some mistake overall program costs for only costs of adoption.? My question is, if children are being taken from the country, why shouldn?t an organization try to better the lives of those that stay within their country of birth?? People are ignorant to the truth.

8. When you think the future of international adoption will be? What will you continue to play?

My personal opinion is that international adoption will continue in some form even in the face of overseas pressures to stop the practice and the coming push to reform domestic adoption in the U.S. thus making it easier to adopt children domestically.? The number of orphan visas in 2003 was over 20,000 and for 2013, it may be as low as 7,000.? Children still need homes that will otherwise either die or age out and live in the streets where they were born. ?For all of the West?s do good attitude, not much has been accomplished.? What has been accomplished is that some of ?us? were able to have a home!?? Is that worth going the extra mile and trying to reform the system?? I say yes along with some 400,000 of my brothers and sisters in adoption.? We must be better at what we?re doing and truly believe that a child?s interest is number one! In my opinion, the question of? what?s best for the child has been replaced by what?s best for my career, what?s best for the country, what?s best for the birthmother under the disguise of women?s rights, what?s best for the adoptive parents and what?s best for the organization?s programs.? The Child must be considered first, not as an afterthought.

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Source: http://adoptionvoicesmagazine.com/expert-connection/the-past-and-the-future-of-international-adoption-an-experts-opinions-and-experiences-2/

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