anin '94, met birth mothein korea and lot of pple ked me, ke o how d you exrience i", you ow ? d they'rall thinng yoknow "oh, thamust bevery etional,"nd so on. ♪ i think back there is so much emotion . it's too much for somebody and that means they go num b. they c't fee anytng anymo . i samyself hging this motr and so n. of crse, younow, ey were, erybodwas crng but s i cryi becae i was d? i don'know-- maybe i was yi ng becauseverybody expectedt, you know? and at tt timei was ju lik ea robo you know? i di't feel ything after found myirth motr, i tried to

tk to my rent s,but itas a catastrophe . it wasust kind of like the world crashed . i was diagnosed, basically with pts d, st-traatic strs disord . i ju didn't nt to le anymor i went uto school, and so my times,i just sod theren the dg e anthough like, hould i mp ?" so i told mylf you knowi convincemyself "maybe not today, but i want to live another ten days ." but many tis, i... it w reallclose, y kno w?

coe-sason: whi in kore i we on telesion on the msing perns show. i di't hear anythi fromha t. and th one day i gea phone ll from gentlan namedavidwho says he's brother. this family saw pictureof mon tv inor d he wanted make coact d for uso get toth er d to, toome ck into e family. i waelated th had beesearchin for mell theseears . head a sisr, angie who lid in btimore she woulhave beemy siste r, bueach of wererom diffent fath s. coe-sampso this istacy this i..and th is simone . simo: hi. angie: hi!cooke-mpson:

simone, is is gi e.(laughg, talki at once) you gomy aunt'nose .my momad a nosjob. oke-sason: oh. ane: you a like, me like .coe-sampso the aunt? gie: anme, i'm between.up he isot.. i'm likey father picte of my ther and the ttom part m a. anyou, thipart is ur mom stacy:ea h.mommy, is like lking the mir r. - i don'know, ok. - nd of clhes you ar . and u wearour pant up hh like t t.cooke-mpson: gie saidy manner ms we very mu like thmother and shtolde the moer hajust pasd away ohthis w last apl-- twaprils a ? two ars ago?- ye we agreethat i tught 'd be be st th i got ana tes (in re): - (repeang ): love youmom. - -h m! cool

. coe-sampn: lete seeif youe gonnbe diffilt . my veis good i do belve it, aost 10 thathe is myister, u know (talki softl ane: so at's it?cooke-mpson: tt's it ll see y, and les hope a pray tt this.. . - ohme, too,e, too ...that 'll be o wee k. i pe, one ek, we'lbe caineach oth siste - yeahi hope s - mm-h . (birds crping) e-won ki it's journeyhere i swl y arted toearn, li wham i ? grew up switzerndbut i'm rean, period

. i d to lea a lot othings emotns .sadnes for exale . i felt.. . (cles throat sorry. ye, i talkbout tt, then, ah, i fe sad, yoknow ? so... lears that ) (eales ) i s t numb amore. ♪ cooksampn: we got thena tesng. gie and vid we definity related.i wano t.

i had thght mae now my heartould rest that had my mily and think th if iad not bn through what iad been through, i don't ink i would' had thmoral coag e say to em "i wt to get dna tting ."i coulhave eily slipd righinto theamil y, and,elievee, at thoug crossedy mind cause wh i saw how wondful the mily i veryuch want to bpart of e family. but i codn't be shones ani thout to myself, u was adoed onc don't wa to badopted ice. " ♪ (speakg korean)

reporter(speakg korean (repter speang korea - (speing korean) reporter(speakg korean - (speakg korean): ♪

dae-won m: weroduced is book, and it sws, basilly, lik pictes from opte es whare lookg for theiparent we disibute th bookletto disict offi s and otr placeshere rth pares would t o they e interestedto find eir chilen . ♪ oke-sampn: ase were tveling aund,we wento one cit anit had arain staon and it jged my mor y of wre i posbly uld haveeen from. i st have me from e south.

nyoung k (speing kore):receptionist a minyog ki m:receptnist : nyoungim: soaccordinto this cument whh was written 195 5, your namwas kangyun-sook and ur bapti name was esth . how curate w thi s? so was boron march 1 19? hodid i t septem r? ♪ at i wand to finout was, d my motr reallyring m to therphanage or was a true phan inhe sensehat somedy foun me in a tra can or the urch ste or somein g? minyoung k: so this is a baism docunt

of ki here... this is your name-- kang hyun-sook . sether e?father, informaon anyou are xed-raceand yo mom broht you h e. - (qetly): my mothebrought her e? - so..(speaks rean thiss, meansmom. " (wom speakinkorean) - she thks your m got yo baized and brght youto thiorphanage. (cooke-spson cryin g) (sobbi): ank yofor everhing .♪ cooke-sason: ilso remeer anotr orphanag e bere st. pl' s. ♪ oke-sampn: ohmy goodns, this is... oman speing kore )

cooke-sampso thisne... thisooks like thicould bee. ♪ mioung kim let see. - (cryin: i ink. .. (speakinkorean): - obs, cou s) peaking rean ): eporter eaking kean) ♪

trenka:the und-motherssue s been hden om koreasoci y.so we've ted to br g awareness to kor on tt subject, anone of t ways th we'vdone that is through singlmoms' day. (speakinkorean (aience applding) ♪ (speakg korean ): track stds for uth and conciliation

for the option cmunity kea anwe wanto invesga tethe pa and prent adtion praices in re aso we n create betterfutureor koreafamilies. thinin ordero reducehe ra of adopons of cldre nwho arbeing se overasrom korea, primari have to take ca of t single ther ♪ i was souc ky tonow e love ofy koreanothe i thk that hped me t be moreympathet to the milies at lost eir chilen d also t unwed mhe rs whare struling toeep theichildr . ♪ parentwho losthildrento adoio n, optees, d lawyers,and en also e und moers, ford a coalio n. weanted tohange e speciaadoption aw that govns inrnationaadopti s. we'rmaking o own bil l that hefully wl go the natnal assely

and th this ll we hopto priorit ethe rit of theingle moer to kp her ch dinstead ofending tm foadopti . ster: not l adopte want to sea h for their birth families but for those o do we wanted access to birth family record s for all adoptees . more financial support and community suppor t for women who are unmarrie d and who want to raise their children . trenka: we went and talked with a lot of lawmaker s, saying, "we want tpreserve families first "a then dostic adoion okay, d then iernation adopon is ok ." for once, weeren't the objects these picies. we were actually taking some initiative for ourselve s. ♪ dae-wokim: onef the things i nted to achieve is dual citizenship for

adoptees because korean l aw did not permit dual citizenship at al l. i decided, "let's do something about it ." basically, a signature campaign on a worldwide basis . weent itut everywher e, anwe also blishedpress leas e in t korean mea abt what we wand to achve and,asicallywithin aee k, the ministry ojuste coacteus anwe had my meetings . eventually the law went to the parliament, it passed.i beca the fir adopteeto getorean cizenship ck. ♪ felt verproud d satisfd, becae for mepersonal

was somhing that w taken ay from me ainst own wl, d i goit bac (singi in swedh) arctdius: i el very oted d close th my falyer e.and i fe happy with my ildhoo t i havehis loss and al i have is curioty so iant to srch r my bir famil ♪ so tried annothing me of it when was youer was thinng abt my bir mothe bui felt tt wh i grew de r, came morclose to h

beuse i wachanginginto aoman likehe must ve beenwhen s had m and was lookg mylf in thmirror ani was thking 'm seeinher. " sot feels like ve met her in the mior. ♪ cooke-mpson: ielt like had filly comeo the plewhere ihad tohed the rth befo . eing thaphotraph coirme d thatindeed, was fromsomewherdown in sa n. i didn realizehat i wa at a orpnage r mixed ildren oice breing): itas a was a hpier time. ♪

there's no doubt in my mind th for probly 80%or morof korea that ty do notcknowled the xed kids.that ty do notcknowled wh happenein theas t. but belong tthis coury justs much aany her chilborn here. eopltalking backgro d) (pple laugng, talk g) otograph: read one, tw tee eople lahing (all sging in rean )

(sinng conties) (song continues) cooke-sampson: "50% korean, 100% me ." (song continue s)

del to: st up to date on america reframed at worldchannel.or g. subscribe to world channel's youtub e to go beyond the lens with our filmmakers . tell us what you think using #americareframed . del toro: major funding for america reframed was provided b y the john d. and catherine t. macarthur foundation wyncotfoundation the corporation for public broadcastin g. additional funding for america reframed provided b y open society foundations acton family givin g, park foundatio n, the national endowment for the arts

and the reva and david logan foundation . additional funding f this episode was provided by i lambda charitable trust. ♪ ♪ recently, i decided to go on the journey to go find my da d, a man that i hadn't seen in 30 years. i remember the last time that i ever spoke to my da d. i was eight years ol d. i don't remember what it was . maybe he didn't come for a visi t, or he missed my birthday or didn't get me a present . i don't quite remember but i do remember feeling angr y. i remember feeling hur

t. and my mom encouraged me to tell him how i felt . now my mom ner badmouthed my da d. she never said he was a bad guy or he was a bad father . and i think even at that young age i knew what she want ed and i think i knew what was expecte d. so when my mom encouraged me to tell him how i felt i remember calling him up on the phon e, my mom was next to me on the couch and i blamed him for this thing, or that thin g, and i don't even remembe r. but i remember the last thin g i ever said to my dad on the phone . and i yelled into the phon e, "i don't ever want to see you ain !" and i didn't for 30 year s. when i finally did decide to reach out to my dad i went on facebook . i knew he lived in new jerse y because i remember visiting him

ther e. so i typed in my last name . i typed in new jerse y. i wasn't really expectin g to find my 70-year-old dad on faceboo k, but i also knew that i had two half-sisters . so i think in the back of my mind i was thinkin g, "maybe i'll find my two half-sister s, and maybe i'll connect with my dad that way ." so as i'm like scrolling through the result s, eventually my gaze focused on this woman . she looked so familiar . i didn't know her, but i recognized her smile because she had my smile . so i messaged he r, and i said "do you know so and so ?" i gave her my dad's last nam e. "i think we're related ." she didn't answer me for quite a whil e, but she did eventually respond and she said "he's my uncle. who are you? " and just like that i had a new cousin . we eventually did connect by phone

and we chatte d. i was so nervous because this was the first tim e in three decades that i have any contact with that si de of the famil y. we talked about the family how i grew u p. the most surprising thing that came out of that conversatio n was that she told me she knew i existed . she used to see pictures of me in my grandparents' basement . but whenever the topic of me would come u p, it was quickly brushed under the ru g. she eventually did ask me whether or n ot she wanted her to share the information with my da d to contact m e. and i said "absolutely, please. " a couple of days later my dad called me . we chit-chatted for a little while it was really superficia l, and the conversation was over in about 20 minute s. it was one of the most awkward conversations i have ever ha d. and at the end of the call i said, "we should meet up ." but we didn'

t. not for another year . i thought i was ready when i began this journey. but because of all the emotion s that got dragged up during this, uh, connection i started feeling the hu rt and the ange r. but not the way i used t o. because i think time does that . a year after that, i went down to new jersey to go meet my da d for the first time . a couple of days before th at i had connected with my two half-sisters and they told me that my dad was extremely nervou s to meet with m e. he didn't know if i was going to be angry if i was going to lash out what i was going to sa y. i met with my dad at a diner near his house . i got out of the car and i saw a man that looke d exactly like m e. only 30 years olde

r. i gave him a hug . i don't think he expected that . we went inside the diner and we ordered and we chit-chatted for a whil e. and eventually he asked me "what do you want to kno w? i'll tell you anything you want to know ." i think i've been waiting for this moment for 30 yea rs and now i couldn't even look him in the eye . so i looked down, and i said "i want to know if the memories that i have are mine . "i want to know where i came fro m. and i want to know what happened. " i didn't ask him the questio n that i really wanted an answer to which was, "why weren't you aroun d? why didn't you try harder? " he started to tell me about the memories that he had . he told me that he didn't blame

my mother for leaving hi m because he knew he wasn't strong enough to keep he r. he told me that we used to have weekend visits togethe r. but whenever he dropped me off my mother would start a fight with him and he didn't want to figh t. she would tell him not to come and eventually she moved and didn't tell him where we were goin g. it just got too hard . and i don't know if he meant that it was too hard for him or it was too hard for me, or the both of u s. he also told me that he thought about me all the time, especially during my birthday, and new year's . and he told me that he never moved because in the back of his min d, he knew that iould finhim one da y. well, i guess here we ar e. we talked that day for about three hour s. and as he walked me back to my

ca r, we made plans to meet up a month after that . it was my dad's 71st birthda y. and he asked me, "are you happy that you came ? did you get what you were looking for ?" and i thought a lot about that on my way up back to bosto n. "did you get what you were looking for? " i think we both got what we were looking for that day . i got my answe rs and he got forgiveness . çççóróxór[ri alwayshought all nurs

were ale. th come inthey tak yourlood preure, th take yo temraturethey sle. i just tught aurse was a nue. ♪ now openour litt mouth. d then iot breascancer. i had a surgeon who fixed me. an oncologist who decided what chemothepy i wasoing to t. i haa radiolist who cided i was ing to g zapped with radiion. but sobody d to put a mason