Do you ever wonder what your children's unspoken thoughts or feelings are about being the only Korean in the family or at school? What fantasies do they have about their birth parents?
This book is based on the research findings from the author's original doctoral dissertation in psychology. It describes the often invisible and hard-to-understand inner world of Korean children adopted by Caucasian families in the United States. The book takes you into their world view on what they think and feel about meeting a Korean woman for the first time, how they feel about being Korean and looking different from their parents, being called "Chinese," what their perception of adoption is, and how they cope with their questions about birth parents through fantasies. Their untainted perspective reveals the beauty and creativity of children's way of looking at things.
This book is a must read if you want to understand your children beyond what you can see.
Review by Bill Drucker, Korean Quarterly
In 1977, as part of her doctoral research, Hei Sook Park Wilkinson participated
in a unique program. In a special qualitative study, for a period of eight
months, eight full Korean adoptees from ages 4 to 8 and their parents took
part in a weekly meeting in downtown Detroit. The goal was to gain access
into the inner world of the adopted Korean children. The results of her case
study produced Birth is More Than Once. This study was groundbreaking
in many ways. Qualitative research had just begun to be recognized asserting
that certain topics rendered themselves better to qualitative rather than
quantitative research methodologies.
Birth is More Than Once is a first of its kind to address the issues of trans-racial adopted children. It is an insightful book that should be on the list of adoptive parents and adoptees. Korean adoptions to Caucasian parents were still a relatively new phenomenon. There were records to how many, and where the adopted children were sent, but there weren’t frequent studies of how well they adjusted to their new lives. Dr. Wilkinson’s study, while limited to a specific group of Korean adopted children, provides important developmental processes, useful guidelines for adoptive parents and adoptees.
While not a sequel to Birth is More Than Once, the anthology, After the Morning Calm, edited by Dr. Wilkinson and Nancy Fox, provides the thoughts and experiences of Korean adoptees as adults. Both books are recommended reading.
Review by Eileen M. Thompson, aka Yang Kwi Hwa, Boston Korean Adoptees
Birth is More Than Once was so completely engrossing and moving. It was the
first book I'd read that brought the inner world, my world, of Korean adopted children
to life. Dr. Wilkinson eloquently creates a framework to understand the bewildering
process of adjustment that these children experience in being transplanted to a new
family, culture and country.
Review by W. Michael O’Neill, Families with Children from China – Metro Detroit
Though focused on Korean children, the material contained in the book should be recommended
reading for every parent and prospective parent involved in cross-cultural adoption.
This groundbreaking work may be easily read in a single sitting, but it challenges all
of us to a lifetime of learning with and about our adopted children.
Review by Chris Winston, Korean American Adoptee Adoptive Family Network (KAAN), author of A Euro-American on a Korean Tour at a Thai Restaurant in China
In this unique book, Dr. Wilkinson provides us a bridge between our children's birth
country and the lives they lead in American families. The book is made more special
by the fact that Dr. Wilkinson shares the children's ethnicity and has herself made
an immigration journey.
