Saturday June 28th
After our speeches, a representative for the host families, her American name is Abbey, gave a speech about her feelings about the program and the adoptee experience. It was really great because she wrote a 5 minute speech and did the translating herself- she read a section in Korean and then in English.
She was Martine's, another member, host mother and shared a lot of great stories about the bond they forged over the 3 days that they spent together. I liked Abbey because she was a little hippie dippie woo-woo like me and Martine- you know- free spirit, energy, good vibes, the universe takes care of us kind of thing.
Abbey meant a lot to me but she didn't know it and here's why...
Tim and I had had a conversation a few days before about a puzzling feeling we were both experiencing:
We are Korean in Korea. Where are the people who look like me???
In a crowd, we could compare features people had.
We could say, "Wow, those people look similar" or maybe we could even say, "They have a similar nose to me" or "They have similar eyes to me"
- but we agreed that we had never found a face in a crowd and said, "Wow. They look like me."
We both found our answers at the end of the Journey.
Abbey looks the most like me I've ever seen anyone look.
I had never seen that before.
I wonder if she looked like me when she was younger.
I didn't find my birth mother- but a part of what I was searching for was someone who looked like me.
Growing up, people would say I looked similar to other people- but most of the time it was just because that person was Asian- not because they genuinely looked like me.
I would always look at Asian people and think, "I don't look like them."
Not that I thought I was white, I just didn't see myself when I looked at other Asian people.
Meeting Abbey satiated something for me that I can't put into words.
Likewise, after we got home, Tim posted a picture of himself when he was younger. He looked strikingly similar to another group member of ours named Axel. This was extra special because during our trip, Axel and Tim grew close like family.
Axel and Tim on the last day.
All that searching we did to find someone who reflects our own image back at us- through decades, through cities, in crowds, over continents- and we both had our answers delivered to us on this Journey. I am grateful.
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