Name: My story of love and loss as a transracial adoptee | Sara Jones
Uploaded: 2020-10-26T20:16:28.000Z
Duration: 12 min 57 s
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

Basic passive voice

I was transracially adopted from South Korea

by a white family in Salt Lake City, Utah.

I arrived in America with a mysterious tattoo on my left forearm.

that my adoptive parents had it surgically removed right away.

They were worried that other kids would make fun of it.

Today, there's only a light scar where the tattoo once was,

so I've redrawn it in permanent marker so you can see what it looked like.

Korean adoption records in 1976 were notoriously incomplete.

I didn't have any information about my background

I didn't even know if my name or birth date were real

Transracial adoption is where a child from one race or ethnicity

is adopted by parents from a different race or ethnicity.

In my generation, children who were adopted from Korea

were assimilated into the culture of their adoptive parents.

Growing up, occasionally my family would eat at a Korean restaurant,

having my tattoo removed is symbolic of losing a connection

Since the 1950s, almost 200,000 Korean children have been adopted

A growing body of research shows that children experience trauma

when they're separated from their families of origin.

I recently found out that my birth mother

When I was two years old, my birth father became injured

and could not provide for my brothers and me.

And so my two older brothers and I were sent to children welfare services.

And there, someone decided, because I was younger,

And so, I was sent to a separate orphanage,

separated from my brothers who cared for me.

My adoption records say that I wouldn't play

with any of the other children at the orphanage,

My adoption photos show the picture of a frightened, malnourished little girl.

Just imagine my culture shock a short and lonely nine months later,

As a three-year-old child, I quickly figured out

that no one spoke the Korean language that I spoke,

and so I stopped speaking altogether for six months.

And when I started speaking again, it was in full English.

as my parents showed me my orphanage photos

Children who are adopted often put up emotional walls

to protect themselves from being hurt again.

and like many transracially adopted children,

there were many moments growing up where I wished that I was white

Now, the '80s styles were particularly brutal to me,

This narrative of adoption might be uncomfortable for you to hear.

The narrative that we usually hear is that of a new parent,

who is eagerly awaiting a child that they've been wanting for so long.

The parents' story is told with love, joy and excitement,

and as they bring a newly adopted child into their home,

family and friends celebrate and congratulate the parents

My parents' adoption story was like a beautiful blanket that kept me warm.

But after a while, it felt like the focus was more on the blanket,

covering me and my point of view entirely.

"I fell in love with you the first time I saw your photo.

They love me, I know that, and I was wanted.

But I wish that the only birth story I had wasn't so sad,

I would often confuse love with gratitude,

especially when other people would say things to me like,

"You're so lucky to be adopted to America,"

or, "Your parents are such angels to adopt you."

To a child, it felt like these comments were constant reminders to be grateful

I resented that I couldn't tell these adults,

"I don't like being reminded all the time that I'm adopted.

and maybe even be ungrateful once in a while."

Subtitles ListPlay Video

My story of love and loss as a transracial adoptee | Sara Jones

figure

empathy

intimacy

trauma