In September, Seattle resident Barbara Kim celebrated Chuseok — the Korean midautumn festival — with her family members in Seoul. Chuseok is a time to give thanks for plentiful harvests, and for Kim, who was adopted by an American family in the 1960s, this was a particularly special occasion: She was able to spend the holiday with several of her birth relatives.
At the celebration they, and a group of South Korean orphans now in their teens and 20s, dug into platters of bulgogi, kimbap, japche and other traditional Korean dishes.
Kim was among the first wave of a 200,000-strong exodus of adoptees, as South Korea became the world's first source of international adoptions. She was born in 1955, two years after the Korean War cease-fire.
In recent decades, adoptees like Kim have been returning to South Korea to find out more about where they come from, build ties with their birth families and connect with others with similar experiences.
After being separated from her three siblings for about half a century, Kim managed to track all of them down and reunite with them. She says they have overcome an initial sense of awkwardness in knowing one another and feel proud to be part of the same family.
"We have a lot in common, even though we grew up so far apart," she said. "I feel like there's this sense of feeling like we belong."
Abandoned, then adopted
Now 64, Kim was the eldest child born to impoverished parents at a time when South Korea was recovering from the conflict that killed millions and left about 100,000 children orphaned.
After giving birth, Kim's mother abandoned her in the hospital. Korean society traditionally prefers boys over girls, and Kim was born with hip dysplasia. Kim's grandmother raised her until she was about 8. Her parents wanted nothing to do with her, and eventually, she was sent to an orphanage.