Korean adoptee Dan Sieling, 30, is on a journey. He shares his story drawing from both great insight and deep vulnerability — but all necessary in order to reclaim his identity and relationship with his native country. He talks about how he reconciles the pain from the loss of his biological family and his abandonment. The New Jersey resident also speaks about confronting some uncomfortable truths about adoption, learning how to accept and love, and how it has helped him to heal.

Credits:
Jahzzar “Schmaltz”
Blue Dot Sessions “These Times”
Blue Dot Sessions “Betty Dear”
Blue Dot Sessions “Drone Thistle”
Blue Dot Sessions “Drone Pine”
Blue Dot Sessions “A Palace of Cedar”
Rusty Detty: Logo

Korean adoptee Teri Thomas is a fighter. Adopted from Goyang to the U.S., Thomas survived sexual abuse by her adoptive father soon after arriving at the age of six. Her experiences in a dysfunctional and abusive adoptive home affected how she has felt about her adoption agency Holt Korea, and about the policy of intercountry and transracial adoption. Thomas has cerebral palsy, and while it does limit some of her physical mobility, it doesn’t affect her spirit. The 48-year old returned to Korea in 2017 to work on an initiative to fight stigma and improve the opportunities for Korean children with disabilities. 

Note: This story contains themes of child sexual abuse, incest, clergy abuse, suicide and physical violence. 

Credits:
Jahzzar “Schmaltz”
Blue Dot Sessions “Rose Ornamental”
Blue Dot Seesions “Headlights Mountain Road”
Blue Dot Sessions “Topslides”
Blue Dot Sessions “Felt Lining”
Blue Dot Sessions “Feathered”
Blue Dot Sessions “Great Is The Contessa”
Blue Dot Sessions “Tiny Putty”
Blue Dot Sessions “Milkwood”
Pictures Of The Floating World “Cloud Chamber”
Rusty Detty Logo

Rachel Kim Tschida, 39, is a Korean adoptee who grew up in Minnesota, ambivalent about her own Asian identity for most of that time. However, she talks about learning to authentically embrace herself after traveling to Asia on business trips for a major American company. Those trips – especially ones back to Korea – helped spark an interest in her own adoption history, and in turn, become an advocate for other adoptees as president of the Korean American Coalition of Washington.

Credits:
Jahzzar “Schmaltz”
Blue Dot Sessions “On Three Legs”
Blue Dot Sessions “Floor Shine”
Blue Dot Sessions “Peacoat”
Blue Dot Sessions “Thread Caramb”
Blue Dot Sessions “Turning On The Lights”
Blue Dot Sessions “Easement”
Blue Dot Sessions “Headlights Mountain Road”
Rusty Detty: Logo

John Park*, 34, is a kinship Korean adoptee. Park is an alias because he does not have legal status in the U.S., despite being brought to the U.S. from Korea as a young child and later adopted by Americans. Adoptee rights advocates estimate there are at least 35,000 foreign-born adopted people in the U.S. who, like Park, never received U.S. citizenship. Efforts to fix an immigration loophole in adoption in 2001 did not address individuals adopted outside the law’s restrictions on age and approved arrival visas. Advocates are hoping to change that with a new bill this year, though passage has so far proved politically challenging. Ultimately, Park’s adoption story is about survival and circumstance, pain and redemption. And hope.

Note: This episode contains themes of child sex abuse and violence.

Credits:
Jahzzar “Schmaltz”
Blue Dot Sessions “Drch”
Blue Dot Sessions “Gtks”
Blue Dot Sessions “Floor Shine”
Blue Dot Sessions “Domina Transit”
Blue Dot Sessions “Tripoli”
Blue Dot Sessions “Pickers”
Blue Dot Sessions “Flower”
Blue Dot Sessions “Lakal”
Rusty Detty: Logo

Greg Norrish, 32, is about to launch a new venture in South Korea with everything he’s learned after more than a decade in kitchens in the U.S., and about fourteen months in his native country. The experience of planting himself amidst an exploding foreign food scene in Seoul has also given him a chance to learn more about himself, reflect on his adoption from Korea and understand more about his native country — including confronting uncomfortable attitudes on gender and violence, which has exposed a darker side of Korean modern society.

Credits:
Jahzzar “Schmaltz”
Blue Dot Sessions “Hickory Shed”
Blue Dot Sessions “A Little Powder”
Blue Dot Sessions “Petaluma”
Blue Dot Sessions “Lemon And Melon”
Blue Dot Sessions “Sunday Lights”
Blue Dot Sessions “Hickory Interlude”
Blue Dot Sessions “Maisie Lee”
Blue Dot Sessions “Gathering Stasis”
Blue Dot Sessions “One Needle”
Blue Dot Sessions “Maisie Dreamer”
Blue Dot Sessions “Town Market”
Blue Dot Sessions “Sylvestor”
Blue Dot Sessions “Cradle Rock”
Rusty Detty: Logo

HyoSung Bidol-Lee, 50, is on a quest for healing. Bidol-Lee survived unspeakable tragedy before being adopted to the United States with his twin sister at the age of six years. Raised in the Midwest, he thrived academically and athletically, meeting many conventional benchmarks of academic and career success. But true happiness and peace eluded him. He went back to Korea this year to reflect about his life and to seek answers.

Warning: This episode contains topics of suicide and homicide.

Credits:
Jahzzar “Schmaltz”
Blue Dot Sessions “Promesa”
Blue Dot Sessions “An Accummulation”
Blue Dot Sessions “Stilt”
Blue Dot Sessions “Sand Reverie”
Blue Dot Sessions “Qi”
Blue Dot Sessions “When In The West”
Blue Dot Sessions “Downhill Racer”
Blue Dot Sessions “Beast On The Soil”
Blue Dot Sessions “Denzel Sprak”
Blue Dot Sessions “Stipple”
Blue Dot Sessions “Emmit Sprak”
Blue Dot Sessions “Slow Slow Sky”
Blue Dot Sessions “The Telling”
Logo: Rusty Detty

Hojung Audenaerde, 45, has navigated identity and displacement her whole life, starting from her intercountry adoption from Korea to Flemish Belgian parents in Italy at the age of two. The family then relocated to the U.S. where she grew up around Americans, but never became one. Later, she went to India to study a specific practice of yoga which she later taught in Europe. But someone happened in 2012; she met her Korean father, which started her down a path of discovery about her own feelings about separation, Korea and of learning to walk alone.

Credits:
Jahzzar “Schmaltz”
Blue Dot Sessions “Intercept”
Blue Dot Sessions “Take A Tiny Train”
Blue Dot Sessions “Xandre”
Blue Dot Sessions “Chrome And Wax”
Blue Dot Sessions “Unfolding Plot”
Blue Dot Sessions “Reptile Theme”
Blue Dot Sessions “Lull”
Blue Dot Sessions “Bottomless”
Blue Dot Sessions “Tangle”
Blue Dot Sessions “Ballast”
Blue Dot Sessions “Marble Transit”
Blue Dot Sessions “Closing”
Blue Dot Sessions “Lead Shroud”
Blue Dot Sessions “Dorica Theme”
Blue Dot Sessions “A Pleasant Strike”
Blue Dot Sessions “Doghouse”
Rusty Detty Logo

Sanne Mogensen, 32, is a Korean adoptee in Denmark. She is a leader in her country’s Korean adoptee community, and talks about what that has meant to her, what it was like growing up in Denmark, racism, and about her own search for identity. And, being Danish, she sets the record straight about hygge.

Credits:
Jahzzar “Schmaltz”
Blue Dot Sessions “Gullwing Sailor”
Blue Dot Sessions “Kalsted”
Blue Dot Sessions “Exceter Lask”
Blue Dot Sessions “Lathe”
Blue Dot Sessions “Hidden Tiles”
Blue Dot Sessions “Tar and Spackle”
Logo: Rusty Detty

Eric Sharp, 38, is a Korean-American actor and playwright. He was adopted from South Korea at age two. Raised in Des Moines, Sharp talks about finding his professional footing in the Twin Cities within a strong Asian-American acting community, on how being a transracial adoptee influences his politics on casting and auditions; he also shares an evocative account of reuniting with his Korean biological family and what he’s learned about himself and them over time.

Credits:
Jahzzar “Schmaltz”
Blue Dot Sessions “House of Grendel”
Blue Dot Sessions “Dirty Wallpaper”
Blue Dot Sessions “Naptime”
Blue Dot Sessions “Children of Lemuel”
Blue Dot Sessions “Rubber Ball Machine”
Logo: Rusty Detty