Redefining and Reclaiming Korean Adoptee Identity: Grassroots Internet Communities and the Hague Convention on Protection of Children and Co-Operation in Respect of Intercountry Adoption

My parents told me that summer of my arrival I would sing and talk in Korean. Of course they never knew what I was saying. They also told me that in those first weeks I would run up to the front door, throw my body up against it and cry and cry and say in Korean, “Jip e ka le!” My sister, born to my parents and age 9 at the time, thought it might be some strange Korean game. So she would run up to the door, throw her body against it and say, “Jip e ka le!” I can imagine my sister doing this over and over—and turning my tears into laughter. Years later my parents learned what my Korean words meant: I want to go home.