[Reposted from 2009 in honor of Adoption Month 2011]
The question of origin can be a tricky one. The truth is that all of us pick some point in time and place for answering this question to make it quick and easy. These days I say I’m “from Colorado.” But most of my adult life has been spent in Arizona and I grew up in Texas. I could just simplify things and say I’m from the Southwest United States, I guess.
Today I was blessed to see a friend add a new piece to the puzzle of his place of origin. My friend was adopted from Korea back in 1971 by a kind American couple. By some turn of events he and I find ourselves in Korea this week on business, but we took time today to make a special trip about 1 hour outside of Seoul. What we found warms my heart.
We drove into Chunchon, Korea around 11am and made our way through the narrow, steep roads to a brightly colored two-story building What was once an orphanage is now a vibrant day care. The sound of laughing children was all around like a distant memory of the children that had lived in these buildings following the Korean War so many years ago. What we found there was much more than a building or a piece of property, we found a person who knew the history of this place. We met the son of the orphanage director from the 1960s and 70s. He was a little boy around the time my friend was there. This gentlemen proceeded to spend an hour showing us old yellowed photographs and handwritten records from the 70s that cataloged the arrival and departure of each child. Over 2,000 children had been placed for adoption through this facility from the 60s through 2006 when it closed. After an hour of research we found that my friend had spent four days there in 1971 before being placed with a foster family. There was the handwritten entry in the journal… his Korean name… his place of birth, all representing a precious piece of the “from puzzle.”
After over an hour of discussion, smiles, questions and realizations we prepared to leave. We prayed. We cried a little, too. We thanked God for providing this place for children and for our new friend from the orphanage who had taken the time to share his personal history with us. He said that several people stop by every year to learn about where they are from. As we prayed I realized that God didn’t lead us to a place today but to a person. What an unexpected surprise. God’s ways and plans are always a surprise, not because we’re stupid or not paying attention but because he is so much better than we will ever understand (at least not yet). I learned something new today about how good God really is and how He not only makes a place for us in the future… He makes a place for us in the past, too.
-Russ
