- Mothers' Rights
- Komapseumnida | http://komapseumnida.blogspot.com/

About
"Let me tell you about all of my mommies!" said my five-year-old son one day as we sat in our kitchen. He began counting: "There's my first mother in Korea, then Mrs. Cho (his foster mother), and then you - you're my third mom!" So simple to his five-year-old mind - but of course adoption is anything but simple. By sharing my thoughts here I hope to better understand the experience that has shaped my life.
Our Story
My husband and I came to adoption by way of infertility. We adopted through a large agency in Washington, DC. Our first child, our son, arrived in 1989, and our daughter joined our family in 1991. They are exactly two years apart, and were six and four months, respectively, when they arrived.
Our decision to adopt Korean children was influenced by nothing we can think of other than a desire to work with an agency that would work with a couple nearing forty. When we reached our decision, we learned that a neighbor was also in the process of adopting a Korean child. They shared their experience, we felt it was a good path for us, and so we proceeded.
We knew absolutely nothing about adoption. We took an adoption preparation class and attended seminars, but that's about it. At the time, our agency offered little preparation outside of the homestudy. Reading helped somewhat, but at the end of the day we were little prepared to support our children's emotional needs.
Reality hit me at the airport on the day our son arrived. His birth mother's presence was overwhelming. Who was she? And who was his father? His grandparents? Where were they? Why were they separated in the first place? And why did we need to stay separated?
In the intervening years I've learned that the complexity of the adoption of Korean children offers many questions, many concerns, and few answers. The joy I now and always will feel at being my children's mom will never dampen, but I recognize now more than ever that my joy came at a great price. Although my kids' journeys are fully their own, I keep the hope for those reunions in my heart. - National Advocates for Pregnant Women | http://www.advocatesforpregnantwomen.org/
- Adoption Healing | https://www.adoptionhealing.com/

Adoption Healing in conjunction with Adoption Crossroads is the largest network in the world for helping those separated by adoption with over 400 adoption search and support groups world-wide. A not-for-profit 501(c) 3 charity, Adoption Healing has adoption related literature, support groups, healing weekends, conferences and a nightly chat. We are dedicated to helping people who have been separated by adoption find each other. We are part of an international effort to preserve families, open adoption records, and educate the public about adoption related issues.
- Trackers International | http://www.uktrackers.co.uk/

Trackers International is an independent voluntary 'not for profit' organisation.
It conducts research into all aspects of adoption 1940's onwards, and makes the findings public.
It's survey of UK unmarried mothers is the most comprehensive ever conducted.
It reveals that 979 of the 1000 mothers who took part were subjected to coercion and duress and the forcible adoption of their baby.
For many years Trackers International enjoyed considerable success searching for and reuniting adoptees, parents and families.Today Trackers International works with those genuinely committed to seeking justice for families.
Justice for adoptees denied the right to be raised by their natural parents with their own families.
Justice for mothers denied the right to keep their babies.
Justice for fathers denied the right to seek custody of and/or access to their own child.
Trackers International supports the call for an Independent Public Inquiry into unlawful adoption practices and procedures.It opposes the secrecy of the Family Courts, the taking of children from innocent parents and forcible adoption.
It believes the law must be changed to ensure that when the grounds for adoption are proven to be false the child is returned to it's natural parents.
- First Mothers Action | http://www.exiledmothers.com/

Adoption: Mothers In Exile
We are mothers who lost our babies to the adoption industry in both closed adoptions and "open" adoptions.
NONE of us willingly surrendered our children.
None of us "gave them away."
Our babies were NOT gifts.?
They were NOT "unwanted."
We were exiled from our babies NOT because we were proven unfit, but because we were vulnerable (young, single, sick, or poor), and lied-to and coerced by social workers, doctors, lawyers, maternity homes, and churches: brokers that made money from selling our babies to a market driven by "consumer" demand. - Birth Mother/ First Mother Forum | http://www.firstmotherforum.com/
This site is a space for birth mothers who relinguish their children & sharing opinions related adoption. - Concerned United Birthparents, Inc. | http://www.cubirthparents.org/index.html

CUB is a national organization serving those touched by adoption and others who are concerned about adoption issues. Although our focus is on birthparents, long the forgotten people of the adoption community, we welcome adoptees, adoptive parents, and professionals. We find that we all have much to learn from each other and that sharing our feelings and experiences benefits all of us.
- Origins-USA | http://originsusa.memberlodge.org/
Origins-USA, the voice of mothers who lost children to adoption, is a national tax-exempt non profit organization standing up to the adoption industry.
With support from members, Origins-USA works to increase public awareness of how adoption separation affects mothers and families. - Origins Canada | http://www.originscanada.org/adoption-activism/

The sacred bond between mother and child is of paramount importance to Origins. It seeks acknowledgment of the need
for healing the emotional damage caused by adoption separation and secrecy, and work towards ensuring that needless separation no longer occursIts vision is one where mothers are educated and informed about the lifelong severe psychological damage caused to themselves and their child by adoption.
Its vision is one where mothers are given all the supports required from society and government in order to parent their own children.Its vision is one where the Adoption industry is regulated and that laws prevent the industry from having access to young vulnerable pregnant youth and women in order to obtain their babies for infertile couples until 90 days after the birth of a child.
Its vision is one where mothers no longer think of, or refer to themselves or each other as "Birthmothers"
- Thirdmom blogspot | http://thirdmom.blogspot.com/

This website is a blog managed by Margie who became a mom through Korean adoption
August 24, 2009
Don't Misses 8-24-09
Since the summer heat and breakneck pace of my life at the moment have rendered me pretty much speechless on the subject of adoption, the very least I can do for you all is share the things that have crossed my path recently.
Korean Unwed Mothers Support Network
It's exciting to announce that the Korean Unwed Mothers Support Network founded by Dr. Richard Boas has launched its website. The organization, which provides assistance to Korean women seeking to parent their children and information to the world about their experience, has been working toward a public presence since its inception. Please bookmark it and share the news. Kudos and congratulations to the entire staff of KUMSN, and to the women who have bravely come forward to share their stories and support others.
Fugitive Visions: An Adoptee's Return to Korea
I've clearly been asleep at the wheel for awhile, because it somehow had slipped past me that Jane Jeong Trenka was working on a new book. Fortunately, I got the word as soon as it was released, and received my copy last week. This book is very different from Jane's memoir The Language of Blood and Outsiders Within, the collection of essays on transracial and international adoption on which Jane collaborated. This book is personal, but in a more compelling, intriguing way. I've just begun, but am hooked.
- Komapseumnida | http://komapseumnida.blogspot.com/
- Adoptees and Birth mothers' Rights & Stop Adoption
- Truth and Reconciliation for the Adoption Community of Korea I http://justicespeaking.wordpress.com/

We are an organization advocating full knowledge of past and present Korean adoption practices to protect the human rights of adult adoptees, children, and families.TRACK is currently focusing on investigation, coalition-building with Korean civil society and others, gathering members and raising consciousness about international adoption from South Korea. The following is a partial list of our activities:
- United Adoptees International blogspot I http://www.uai-news.blogspot.com/ (Nederland)

This Newsportal is part of United Adoptees International The UAI is an independent foundation run and managed by adult adoptees from around the world and is based in the Netherlands.
The UAI NEWS is meant to inform you about adoption in general and the political context wherein adoption plays an important role of (re)distributing children and seperate mothers and fathers from their children.
The UAI Editors team uses sources and resources from all around the world. Field researchers and Academics who earned respect by revealing sensitive issues and critical journalism.
We thank all those who are contributing to an increasing network and remember all those who have been endangered by revealing the truth of (international) adoption. - United Adoptees International I http://www.uai-org.blogspot.com/ (Nederland)
The UAI is not against adoptions but finds the ease how global adoption laws be designed, implemented and accepted open for serious discussion. The UAI is against the international development of childtrafficking and trade of children, answering the law of demand and supply of adopters and agencies. Something which is structurally denied and hidden in the adoption world.
United International Adoptees find it particularly important; to address, in cases of intercountry adoptions, that all attempts of finding solutions in order to pursue transnational adoptions, that when adoption is the last resort, these adoptions should seriously been considered - as far as possible - from the cultural values, norms and ideas of the cultural necessities and understanding of the country of origin.
The UAI feels the need to give Adoptees a voice and face in the international debate. An impact on lives which has been given another twist in a situation they have not chosen for, but which many have to life and bear the consequences of it each day.
- Adoptee Solidarity Korea | http://www.adopteesolidarity.org/

- Koroot (The guest house for Korean Aoptees | http://www.koroot.org/eng/

KoRoot has been founded upon the idea of neighborly love originated from Christian ethics, and is set out to provide assistance to all our sons and daughters who had been adopted out of unfortunate circumstances from the country of their birth in the past. We feel that it is indeed up to us to help them to gain proper view and insight into the birthplace of theirs and provide the best arrangement possible during their stay in Korea.
This type of assistance program is only made possible thanks to wide range of contributions from our members to volunteers to an anonymous benefactor who donated and remodeled his house to be converted into a lowost lodging facility for overseas adoptees during their stay in Korea.
What We Do
- Provide low-cost rooms for returning adoptees.
- Establish a network that interconnect adoptees all over the world to promote exchange of various ideas and information.
- Launch various initiatives to promote awareness among local citizens regarding Korean adoptees sent overseas.
- Plan a number of activities during their stay
- Hold an annual conference and seminars.
- Bastard Nation | http://www.bastards.org/


Bastard Nation advocates for the civil and human rights of adult citizens who were adopted as children. Millions of North Americans are prohibited by law from accessing personal records that pertain to their historical, genetic and legal identities. Such records are held by their governments in secret and without accountability, due solely to the fact that they were adopted.
Bastard Nation campaigns for the restoration of their right to access their records. The right to know one's identity is primarily a political issue directly affected by the practice of sealed records adoptions. It makes efforts to end a hidden legacy of shame, fear and venality. - ※ The convention on the rights of the child | http://www.unicef.org/rightsite/
- Truth and Reconciliation for the Adoption Community of Korea I http://justicespeaking.wordpress.com/
- Adoptees' Birth family Search & Adoption Related Issues
- Global Overseas Adoptees'Link | http://www.goal.or.kr/

Global Overseas Adoptees' Link (G.O.A.'L) is a non-profit organization and a NGO consisting of overseas Korean adoptees (OAKs) and native Koreans working together to locate birth families and experience Korean life and culture.
Objective
1. Contribute to adoptees in identity formation and understanding Korean culture
2. Share the anguishing experiences of unmarried mothers, adoptive families and adoptees
3. Improve Korean domestic adoption culture and contribute to the betterment of adoptees'
Rights
We feel it is important that adoptees have a home base and voice within their birth country. The primary focus of G.O.A.'L is to inform the Korean society and government about the existence of Overseas Adopted Koreans (OAKs) and what it means to be adopted. Secondly, G.O.A.'L fosters positive links between adoptees and Korean society, and increases international awareness regarding issues of Korean adoption. Thirdly, G.O.A.'L provides adoptees that wish to learn about Korean life firsthand with support, also those who are looking for their birthfamilies G.O.A.'L assists adoptees in their endeavours. Finally, G.O.A.'L works by slowly breaking down the walls of prejudice, misunderstanding, shame, and pity that separate Koreans from adoptees and adoptees from each other.
For those adoptees returning to Korea to visit or stay, G.O.A.'L has compiled a list of resources such as translators, guides, birth search departments, and other volunteer support networks available specifically for Korean adoptees. In the past, many teenage and adult adoptees were discouraged from coming to Korea because they didn't know anyone in Korea or where they would stay if they did come. It is our hope that G.O.A' L's message will reach those adoptees that feel this way and give them the courage to visit Korea without the fear of feeling isolated. We believe that there are sufficient resources for Korean adoptees to live in Korea for a short or long term period.
- Origins, Inc | http://www.originsinc.com/about.htm

Origins strives to bring a moderate voice to the subjects of adoption, search and reunion. We recognize the importance of the need to know one's origins, but at the same time the need to respect people's wishes and personal situations. Origins attempts to balance the needs of each side. Origins acts as a confidential intermediary, searching and facilitating reunions while recognizing that this may be a difficult transition requiring good support, communication, and sensitivity.
- Adoption Healing | https://www.adoptionhealing.com/

Adoption Healing in conjunction with Adoption Crossroads is the largest network in the world for helping those separated by adoption with over 400 adoption search and support groups world-wide. A not-for-profit 501(c) 3 charity, Adoption Healing has adoption related literature, support groups, healing weekends, conferences and a nightly chat. We are dedicated to helping people who have been separated by adoption find each other. We are part of an international effort to preserve families, open adoption records, and educate the public about adoption related issues.
- Bastard Nation | http://www.bastards.org/


Bastard Nation advocates for the civil and human rights of adult citizens who were adopted as children. Millions of North Americans are prohibited by law from accessing personal records that pertain to their historical, genetic and legal identities. Such records are held by their governments in secret and without accountability, due solely to the fact that they were adopted.
Bastard Nation campaigns for the restoration of their right to access their records. The right to know one's identity is primarily a political issue directly affected by the practice of sealed records adoptions. It makes efforts to end a hidden legacy of shame, fear and venality. - SUNFLOWER BIRTHMOM SUPPORT GROUP | http://www.bmom.net/
This group is established by a birth mother who relinquished her child for adoption. The website helps people find their family members & provide other services.
WELCOME TO THE
SUNFLOWER BIRTHMOM
SUPPORT GROUPSome MUSIC for Your Listening Enjoyment While you explore my birthmom page!
The Theme for Summerplace
Gilligans Island Theme
This Magic Moment
Michael Jacksons' THRILLER
- Adoption Mosaic | http://www.adoptionmosaic.org/ http://blog.adoptionmosaic.org
Adoption Mosaic is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization providing educational resources and ongoing support to all those whose lives are influenced by adoption.
Vision
A healthy lifelong adoption experience.
Mission
The Adoption Mosaic mission is to connect, honor and serve the adoption community through innovative education, practices and support services.Principles
- We serve all members of the adoption constellation. This includes adoptees, adoptive parents, birth parents, extended family and friends, adoption professionals, and other members of our community.
- We are committed to working collaboratively with individuals, organizations and agencies.
- Adoption Mosaic is not an adoption agency, nor are we associated with any agency. We do not make recommendations about agencies or specific types of adoptions.
- We are dedicated to finding creative and new ways to support the adoption community and to raise awareness about adoption issues.
- Global Overseas Adoptees'Link | http://www.goal.or.kr/
- Supporting Single Mothers
- girl mom | http://www.girl-mom.com/ (for young mothers)

We do not encourage childless teens to follow our path; face it, it's a tough path. But we encourage all teens who wake to the call of "mama!" before dawn breaks to do all that they can to empower themselves and nurture their children. We encourage those who, through their own choices and free will, have evolved from Girl to Girl-Mom.The girls who frequent this site are intelligent, strong, compassionate, socially aware, politically active, and eternally nurturing.
Together, we will change the face of "teen parenthood."
- Hipmama | http://www.hipmama.com/

Hipmama.com is an independent online magazine bursting with political commentary and ribald tales from the front lines of motherhood. Providing a forum for fresh, authentic writing from the trenches of parenting has always been our mission.
- INCITE a single moms support | http://www.incitesinglemoms.com/
- Canadian single moms' support group
INCITE:
A Single Moms Support Group, is an organization that supports a prominent group in our community, that is growing and in need. Our mission is to raise all single moms and their children by providing support, education and opportunity for empowerment. Our vision is to encourage these families to grow and flourish in mind, body and soul.
We offer:
- A Support Group
- A Childrens Program
- A Focus on Healthy Living
- Social Outings
- A Mentor Program
- Philanthropy Events
- $2 Consultations with a lawyer, financial adviser or counselor
- Guidance
- Support
"The purpose of life is not to be happy. It is to be useful, to be honorable, to be compassionate, to have it make some difference that you have lived and lived well."
Ralph Waldo Emerson - soroptimist | http://www.soroptimist.org http://www.soroptimist.co.kr/
Soroptimist is an international organization for business and professional women who work to improve the lives of women and girls, in local communities and throughout the world. Almost 95,000 Soroptimists in about 120 countries and territories contribute time and financial support to community-based and international projects that benefit women and girls.
The name, Soroptimist, means "best for women," and that's what the organization strives to achieve. Soroptimists are women at their best, working to help other women to be their best.
Soroptimist members belong to local clubs, which determine the focus of volunteer work to their communities. Club projects range from renovating domestic violence shelters and providing mammograms to low-income women, to sponsoring self-esteem workshops for teenage girls. In addition, Soroptimists participate in organization-wide programs including the Soroptimist Women's Opportunity Awards, Soroptimist Club Grants for Women and Girls, the Soroptimist Workplace Campaign to End Domestic Violence, the Soroptimist Ruby Award: For Women Helping Women, the Soroptimist Violet Richardson Award and Soroptimists STOP Trafficking. Clubs also participate in the Live Your Dream campaign, which encourages all women to live their dreams while helping others to do the same. - singlerose | http://www.singlerose.com/welcome/

SingleRose.com - Resource for Single Mothers Web Site! SingleRose.com is an emotionally supportive publication for divorced, widowed & never married women raising children alone. Each month in SingleRose.com you will find timely informative articles written by doctors, lawyers, psychologists and others on a variety of topics of interest to single mothers; divorce recovery, dealing with anger, child support and custody issues to name a few. Every week you'll find a special story from our single mother of the week, telling stories of pain, struggle, triumph and joy. You'll learn what makes these women special single parents and how they deal with their situations. (See "Mom of the Week") With the help of these women and many professionals, SingleRose.com - Resource for Single Mothers strives to make the lives of single mothers and their children a little easier.
- girl mom | http://www.girl-mom.com/ (for young mothers)






