Frequently Asked Questions

Why you should consider visiting your child's birth country:

Traveling to your child's birth country benefits the adoptee, their siblings, parents and extended family members. Seeing where they came from gives adoptees a sense of their identity, what the country looks like, and provides a taste of their culture. Siblings feel more connected to their adopted sibling after experiencing the country and culture. Parents feel more able to understand and help their child. By traveling together, the family shares new experiences while both feeling a bit uneasy with new places. This trip offers a great opportunity for older adoptees to open up and discuss hidden feelings and for younger ones, the chance to be proud of the country from which they came. Every adopted child is curious and wonders about their birth country, even though they may not talk about it.

This is your opportunity to give your adopted child an increased sense of self (identity); increased self esteem and the chance to open up communication.

What is the best age to visit ?

There is no perfect age for your child to visit the country of their birth. Traveling to their country can accomplish many goals:

• It can be just a fun, family vacation trip as Korea has many exciting places to visit and activities to do. If this is your goal, you can take kids as young as 5-6 yrs old. This will be a family vacation in Korea and can be done in a one week trip while seeing a variety of different things. Younger children will remember this trip and, when they get older and want to do a more advanced trip, everyone involved will be more comfortable.
  
  
• At about 7 years old, children begin putting together thoughts and for this reason, your Korean trip can be the next step. This could include meeting your child's Foster Mother and visiting the Adoption Agency and the Babies' Home. This will build their knowledge of where they are from and how their adoption happened.
  
  
• At about 10 years old, kids start wondering how adoption took place in detail. A trip to Korea at this age could include visiting their Adoption Agency, meeting their Foster Mom and seeing where they were before they were adopted, including who took care of them. This is a great step to start building a foundation of who they are and this should help ready them for the pre-teen years.
  
  
• At about 13 yrs old and older, kids need to start building pride of who they are and where they are from. This can be enhanced with a Homeland Tour, including a meeting with their Foster Mom where they can ask questions about what they were like when she was taking care of them. It would also include a visit to the birth clinic and possibly meeting the Doctor who delivered them. You and your adopted child will have the opportunity to check out their birth town and taste more different kinds of food. You may also visit a Korean Home and see what their life would have been like. A birth parent search and meeting could also be part of this trip.
  
  
• Some older adoptees might want to visit Korea themselves, without parents. They then are able to participate in the Adult Adoptee Trip with peers their own age. Learning the Korean Language, going out with Korean young adults and staying overnight at a Korean home are possibilities with this trip.