Jessye Hale, or 송진주, 23, was adopted from Korea as a child and grew up in Wisconsin. Today, she finds herself back in her native country working as a cancer researcher.  She also found her biological parents and has been learning how to navigate these new relationships. 

Allie De Lacy, 25, was adopted from China to the UK at the age of two. Now married to a woman and living in Edinburgh, and an an anti-racism activist, De Lacy talks about her experiences growing up in near racial isolation and the racism she has experienced and still does today, as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. Listen as De Lacy shares how by researching her past, she discovered she knew even less than she had thought.

Excerpts from “The Girl With Many Faces,” by the BBC The Social.

TW: Cutting, child abuse (including sexual abuse)//

Robert (Calabretta) Lee, 35, was adopted from South Korea to an abusive home in the U.S. He survived a difficult childhood, first in Michigan and later in central New York, by moving out at age 16 and found hope from key friendships along the way and exposure to a nearby Korean church community in Ithaca, NY. His story takes some surprising turns, including at one point being told by Holt Korea his file contained nothing to reuniting with his family and discovering the shocking revelation that he had been trafficked. 

Y_o_o_l_ appears courtesy of the artist.

Korean-American adoptee Jacquelyn Wells, 33, born Choi Yena, shares some of her story in a wide-ranging interview about being a musician, jewelry designer and now taking on leadership roles in the Korean adoptee community. Listen to this up-close look at her life where she also talks about reuniting with her Korean family and her reflections about it. 

Bright Eyes appears courtesy Bright Eyes and Saddle Creek (2005).

Jacquelyn Wells appears courtesy Jacquelyn Wells.

TW: Suicide //

Korean adoptee Darcy Mitttelstaedt, 49, has overcome so much. And yet her faith and her work helping others have given her so much hope. She was adopted at the age of two from Korea and raised in a farming community in Nebraska amidst abuse and dysfunction. Despite it all and the emotional scars, Mittelstaedt has found her calling in life and has learned to form her own family and find some peace. 

Korean adoptee Sun Mee Martin, 39, was adopted from South Korea to southern Germany when she was 3 1/2 years old. She talks about how her own views on adoption have changed over the years, and of how her work has also evolved from being a communication designer to now curating spaces for interconnection and starting Numaru, a new healing and self-discovery space for adoptees. 

Photo credit: IG @carinaadams

Danish filmmaker and Korean adoptee Sun Hee Engelstoft, 38, originally named 신순희, sits down with Adapted Podcast to talk about the making of her profound documentary film, “Forget Me Not,” which focuses on the lives of several Korean teenagers who are faced with a difficult decision of whether to keep their babies or give them up for adoption. She also talks about early memories living in Africa with her white parents and childhood feelings of isolation and not belonging in a small town in Denmark.

Timothy Vanderburg, 30, is an Australian Korean adoptee living in Sydney.  Growing up, he became involved with a local Korean adoptee camp and continued to have an interest in Korea throughout his life. And though he’s had many opportunities to connect with his native land and its people, those experiences have taught him important lessons about identity. 

Korean adoptee SunAh Marie Laybourn, 38, was adopted to the state of Tennessee in the US at the age of four months from Korea. After her adoptive mother died when SunAh was young and navigating environments where she was different from the white or Black students at her schools, she buried her feelings as a way to cope. Now an educator, motivational speaker and coach and podcaster, the high achiever has had much professional success. Lately, Laybourn has focused on a personal identity transformation that has culminated in changing her name to reflect her Korean roots. 

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Jonas Gürrich, 34, was adopted at three months from Korea to Norway. He has a positive outlook about his adoption and feels fortunate to have grown up with the parents and older sister, also a Korean adoptee, that he has. Recently, he’s been exploring DNA as a way to search for biological relatives, though not without trepidation.