Sister from Another Mother

About two weeks ago, I received an email.  I looked at the subject line and automatically thought it was spam.  I've had several spam comments on my personal blog and many on my coupon blog.  So I deleted the email without reading it.  I went on down my email list and saw another email from the same person.  I could tell it was a comment I needed to moderate from my blog.  Since it was the second email, I opened it.  This was the comment left on my blog:

"I hope this doesn't show up twice.  I tried to comment earlier but it hasn't shown up.... perhaps you have to approve comments?  Anyway... I would like to contact you about your adoption from South Korea.  We think my wife is from the same orphanage.  I tried to email you via the address that is listed but got a delivery notice that it was a bad address.  Would you mind emailing me at.....?  Thanks."

I read this while I was relaxing from my morning walk.  I thought, "Well this could be legit, or it could be some wackadoo that has read my blog."  Then a few hours later, I got a Facebook friend request from him.  I thought it was him because they had the same first name.  So I did what any normal person would do, I became a Facebook creeper.  I looked at his profile and his pictures.  He did indeed have a Korean wife and two cute, cute kids that looked a lot like mine (half white/half Asian).  I decided it would be okay to email him.

I had no idea how he found my blog.  I do not have it set where you can Google it and find it.  He would have had to have had an actual link to get to my blog.  I emailed him.  I wrote that his wife was more than welcome to email me and send me a Facebook friend request.  I gave him the name of the orphanage I was adopted from so he could verify if we were adopted from the same place.  He replied and told me he would have her friend request me and then replied again and said, "my wife's mom remembers your mom."  Her dad had been in the air force also.  By now I am completely convinced that I will have something in common with this unknown woman.  

Later that night, I received a very long email from the man's wife.  Her name was Nikki.  The first thing she wrote was that her husband had found my blog though my mom's blog.  That put my mind at ease.  Next she told me she and her husband were born again evangelical Christians and she was so blessed to find out the same was true with me and my family.  

Nikki then dove right into her story.  She was born in Gunsan, Korea in late 1972.  She was left under a street lamp and taken to the police station. They in turn took her to the Ilmagwon Orphange.  We actually had the same last Korean name as everyone did at Ilmagwon.  We were all named after Mrs. Park.  In addition, we also had the same first name, Myung.  Mr. Kim (the son of Mrs. Park who runs the orphanage now) said I was named after the Myung Police Station.

Nikki then proceeded to tell me about when she came to the USA and a quick recap of her life.  She told me her mother remembered my mother, my adoptive father (because of his unusual name, Skyler) and me specifically.  They had kept in contact with Mrs. Park for a while, but had lost touch with her.  They were happy to hear that as of last year, Mrs. Park was still alive.  When we were in Korea, Mrs. Park had told us that there were only five babies adopted though the Gunsan Air Base back then.  Mrs. Park had heard from four of us.  Nikki is the fifth baby.

Nikki told me she had read all of my blog post of our trip to Korea.  It was very surreal talking to her because she knew so much about me from reading my blog and I knew next to nothing about her.  Although after reading her first email and learning about her story that was so similar to mine, I felt a connection to her.

She also told me exactly her husband had found me.  Nikki had tried to find out more information about adoption. She found the adoption agency, but they had world wide locations.  She didn't look into the Ilmagwon Orphanage.  They were possibly feeling lead to adopt.  Nikki's mother said they should look into adopting from the Ilmagwon Orphanage.  Nikki Googled "Ilmagwon Orphanage" and came across my mom's blog post.  There were links on my mom's blog to my Korea trip posts.  Viola.  

We have been emailing back and forth past several weeks.  It's been so amazing to see how God has worked in both our lives and how our paths have crossed at this time.  It's so strange that two little girls born months apart in the same little small town and taken to the same small orphanage would find each other 41 years later on the other side of the world.

We have found out Mrs. Park is still alive.  We have both grown up not really interested in finding our birth parents. Probably mostly due to the fact there's probably not much of a chance we could find our birth parents.  Her testimony is great.  God has always drawn her to him.  Just as he has me.  It will be interesting the see the rest of journey for her family.  I also look forward to getting to know her better.  We may have an opportunity to get together later this year.  Exciting!!!