International adoption

Peter Møller, attorney and co-head of the Danish Korean Rights Group, holds documents at the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in Seoul, South Korea, Tuesday, Aug. 23, 2022.

Danish Korean adoptees seek truth about their adoption circumstances

Justice

“We have reason to suspect that a lot of the information about us, at least the information we know, is incorrect,” said Peter Knudsen, who is one of 50 cosigners on an application filed to South Korea’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission last week to clarify their origins.

A black and white photo of a large family

For many, international adoption isn’t just a new family. It’s the loss of another life.

Layne Fostervold and his mother, Kim Sook-nyeon. Fostervold was adopted by an American family when he was about 2 years old. His mother never stopped wondering what happened to him.

A Korean adoptee meets his birth mother and winds up moving in with her

Culture
Kim Craig has spent the past three years in Korea, hoping to get home to the US.

This woman has been stuck in Korea for three years trying to get home to the US

Justice
Two images, one of an infant in black and white and one of a woman

She’ll get US citizenship 60 years after being adopted, but thousands more must still wait

Justice
Lee Jin-ri had been abandoned at a "baby box" at South Korean church. The "baby box" is where mothers can leave unwanted infants.  South Korea was the first country to send its babies abroad for adoption.

How South Korea became the first country to start international adoptions

Development

South Korea was the first country to begin sending babies to adoptive parents in other countries. It started in the aftermath of the Korean War as a way to remove the disgraced bi-racial babies of US soldiers and Korean women.

Kaomi Goetz, 44, (r) with distant relative, Alice Thompson, 28. They're both Korean-American adoptees who found a shared genetic connection on a DNA database, after they had met by chance at a gathering for adoptees in Brooklyn, New York. Kaomi is still t

Korean adoptees are using DNA kits to get a glimpse of their ancestry

Science

Most Korean adoptees have no information about their birth families. Can at-home DNA kits provide some answers?

Thaisi Da Silva 16:9

This woman reconnected with her birth mother in Brazil to find peace. For her adoptive mom.

Culture

Thaisi Da Silva left Brazil for the U.S. with her adoptive parents at the age of 4. Since then, she’s returned twice to try to reconnect with her birth mother. But her journey has been more about finding peace for her adoptive mother than for herself.

Loyda Rodríguez holding a photograph that shows her daughter Anyelí and her siblings.

One girl’s controversial adoption, and what it says about Guatemala’s broken international adoption system

Justice

Guatemala halted international adoptions years ago, because the process had become so corrupted. But there are still a lot of unanswered questions about adoptions that went through in the past, and about one highly controversial case in particular.

A New Magazine Hopes to Spark Frank Talk About Race and Identity in Adoption

Arts, Culture & Media

A new magazine aims to provide a voice for adult adoptees around the country. Many of the magazine’s contributors are from Minnesota, a state with a rich history of international adoption. Minnesota Public Radio’s Laura Yuen reports.