Korean Adoptee Accidentally Reunited With His Birth Mother And Does Something Amazing

[Music] so when I first got back here three years ago I stayed here it's a little goshiwon this room is small [Music] I used to live here about three and a half years ago and moved around once a time since I just remembered liking this place a whole lot because it was quiet and relatively cheap and all the utilities and everything had included so when to come back here growing up my parents always told me my name was Lee Ben this is Mary South Jersey for them names Lee Kuan Yew statement of adoption Kevin K was my father ye corny help 8 months I was 8 months when I came over it was born in Busan this case number the early years of my life I grew up in lower New Jersey very close to Philadelphia area grew up in a family of six to a parents of Italian descent who adopted me very patient people they provided for me terrifically like I couldn't have asked for more I was never alone the story was always explained extremely well in a very positive light they always kind of talked about my OMA sort of like a hero like a very unselfish person she loved you so much that she sent you here so you could have this food you're eating you could you know be warm at night that kind of thing there was some issues in the public school system or around town growing up but it was never anything that really made me down on myself or anything like that I was I was I was well prepared mama did a good job with that summer 2008 I had been dating somebody that Korean that I had met in the States she was on a six-month travelers visa and eventually visa ran out came back here following summer I decided to come over for a couple months and stay here visit her first time I'd been back to Korea since I left as a child here visiting her and she's working in an office so every day she'd get up and go to work and I'd be left to my own devices so I would go to the subway station kind of point at a difference I closed my eyes pointed a spot on the map opened my eyes and say okay today I'm going here I would try that every day and discover little parts of the city I ended up going to hop Jeong one day and in hop Jeong I was walking around the back streets and I came across a building said Holt and I remembered growing up that hope was the agency through which I was sent to America I was adopted I ran it through this building holt and then I thought oh this maybe this is that building they think this is the organization so but standing there at the doorstep of that place I kind of thought you know this is something I may never get another opportunity to to do to see I walked in and told her pretty much yeah this I'm this guy it just kind of was curious you have a picture of anything that I just I never had an image of what this person looked like so and apparently my OMA had been visiting frequently throughout the years just to see if I had come by so we did have a mutual at that point a mutual desire to see each other I just think she didn't want to start a new life I guess in case I ever did return in meeting these two members of our our now bigger family it just goes without saying this is a responsibility I can't turn my back on well that that's a value that was instilled in me by my mother in New Jersey and she always emphasized that family is number one the most important thing above all and that's something that's never left me [Music] [Music] I'm doing odd jobs at the moment working behind a bar got struggle with the making ends meet you know don't have the greatest work line of work these days kind of strange hours that I work a lot of long days long nights and I'm very fortunate I grew up not even caring about ever reuniting with DOMA I didn't grow up thinking about it ever I just happened by chance to have the opportunity so I took it and I am truly blessed now to to extend the family to a further degree you know I'm one of hopefully the rest of my family continues to do that as well the bigger your family the better way I see it no life has definitely been on the up since that happened as far as the quality of things happening so he's been in a positive direction good lives take a lot of maintenance you have to maintain to make your life better and that you need other people to help make your life better and once once they make your life better it's it's sort of like an unspoken contract but that's the nature of that relationship of helping one another and it feels good too it's very fulfilling so and it feeds one hand washes the other and it just continues to grow from that point you [Music] you

Channel: A Plus

Views: 1,272,292

Keywords: a plus, a plus original, doug walsh, lee kwon hyup, hyup, adoption, adoption awareness month, holt, holt adoption agency, vineland, nj, seoul, korea, hapjeong, kevin walsh, Adoptee, adoption agency, adoptive family, family

Id: IID6SyqdJDU

Length: 7min 40sec (460 seconds)

Published: Wed Nov 22 2017