The girls watching Daddy do some yardwork in the courtyard.
It is Adoption Day in South Korea today. The day was designated last year in an effort to promote domestic adoption. South Korea has had one of the highest rates of overseas adoptions since the Korean War. Every year, about 2,000 babies are adopted overseas, accounting for approximately 60% of all adoptions from Korea. Being that South Korea's adoption program is the oldest, organized international adoption program in the U.S., many American families choose Korea when looking into adoption. Korea has become one of the top 10 economic powers in the world today and as a country, the government is trying to encourage more Koreans to adopt domestically. As I've written in the past, the adoption program dates back to the early 1950's when U.S. servicemen were fathering children with Korean women outside of marriage. Illegitimate, mixed-raced children, had little place in traditional patriarchal Korean society. Since then, South Korea has come a long way. It is their hope to minimize the number of children who are adopted overseas and eventually close the international adoption program altogether. There are many rumors about when and if this will actually take place but that still remains to be seen. We understand the country's thoughts behind this initiative and we think it's important to encourage more South Koreans to adopt. Obviously though, what matters most is that the children go to loving and secure families, no matter what country that may be.
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