News and Events : News 03-04

Press Release May 24, 2004

Northfield Mount Hermon Student Reunited with Korean Birth Parents 

NORTHFIELD , Mass. —Karin Jong-Mee Garber had a spring vacation she’ll never forget. The Northfield Mount Hermon senior met her birth parents for the first time.

Garber was born in Korea , but her parents gave her up for adoption when she was a baby. An American couple, Seth and Susan Garber, adopted her and raised her in Oregon with her older adopted brother, Michael. She’d grown up knowing she’d been born in Jinju City and her birth parents were farmers, but little else.

For spring break, Garber traveled to South Korea for a sightseeing trip with her NMH roommate, Jessie Jeon, who is native Korean. Before their trip, Jeon did some Internet research, hoping to learn more so they could visit the exact area where Garber was born. Jeon contacted Holt International Children’s Services, which had handled the case. A woman from Holt e-mailed the next day, and within four days, the agency located Garber’s birth family in Korea , who said they were willing to meet her.

Through Holt, Garber learned that her parents carried tremendous guilt about her. She’d been the fifth of five daughters; one of her sisters had lost an arm in a machinery accident, causing their mother to lose confidence in her parenting skills. These factors had contributed to her parents’ decision to put her up for adoption.

Garber met her family on the last day of her vacation in Korea . In her dreams, she’d imagined encountering her mother on a deserted street, where the two could hug quietly. Instead, in a room at the Holt agency, she met eight people: her parents, four sisters, brother, and the fiancé of one of her sisters. They spent five hours together, talking with the help of a translator and sharing gifts. Garber brought a stack of past birthday photos of herself that her adoptive mother had sent along.

Garber’s mother, Jong-Im Kwon, kept asking in Korean, “Is she mad at me?”

Her daughter repeatedly assured her that she felt thankful, not angry.

The leave-taking that day was hard on all sides. “Everybody cried, even my father,” says Garber. “I think it was hard for them because they had to let go of me a second time.”

Back in the United States , Garber communicates with her sisters every day through instant messaging. The sisters, who lives in cities and have computers, relay Garber’s messages to their parents.

Garber is planning to study the Korean language and will return to visit her family as soon as she has mastered its basics—next summer, she hopes. She now calls her mother Oma, a version of omoni, the traditional Korean word for mother.

Recently she sent this note to her sisters: “I need you to tell Oma there’s no need to feel guilty, because I have a wonderful life.”

Contact: Mary Seymour 413-498-3247 or mseymour@nmhschool.org

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