"Fiddling with My Gold Bracelet, I Pictured My Parents All My Life": Tears of a Korean-American Adoptee

"Over the past years, whenever I thought of my birth parents who gave birth to me, all I could do was fiddle with this bracelet. It is the only piece of information I have."

Brandi Oliver (52, Korean name Kim Yeon-hwa), a Korean adoptee who traveled from Los Angeles to Daejeon in search of her family roots, said this on the 15th.

She continued, "It took a lot of thought and courage for me to visit Korea," adding, "I came to the place where I was born hoping to find even the smallest clues or traces of my birth parents and family."

Kim Yeon-hwa was found wrapped in a swaddling blanket near Eunhaeng Bridge in Eunhaeng-dong, Jung-gu, Daejeon, on April 11, 1974, and was placed in the Daejeon Bethel House.

At the time Kim was found, there were no separate notes or letters containing exact personal information among her clothes, but as she was an infant then, she is estimated to have been born in 1974.

Kim was adopted into a rural town in Michigan, USA, in August of that year through Holt Children's Services.

Kim's parents left a gold bracelet inside her arms, and Kim has cherished this gold bracelet, her only trace, for over 50 years.

She said that just before boarding her first flight to Korea earlier this month, she learned that her Korean name, Yeon-hwa, was given by the orphanage rather than her birth parents.

Her childhood was not smooth.

Due to her adoptive American father's severe alcoholism, her adoptive parents had to split up when she was 12 years old.

Her adoptive mother worked three jobs simultaneously to fiercely raise Kim and her younger brother, who was adopted from Vietnam, all by herself, but passed away when Kim was 17.

Finishing her studies with difficulty while moving from one part-time job to another, Kim also worked as an English teacher in Japan.

Then, after returning from Japan in 1998, she has resided in Los Angeles ever since.

After earning a master's degree from the University of Southern California to change her career path, she currently works as an oncology nurse and has a pair of twin children.

Kim said that ever since she became an adult, the thought that she must find her birth parents grew much clearer.

After becoming a mother of two children, her longing for her birth parents gradually turned into a deep yearning.

The fact that she had nothing to tell her own children about her family history always remained a heavy burden in one corner of her heart.

Having crossed the Pacific Ocean relying only on a one-page child profile and a bracelet she kept all her life, she toured the place where she was found, the former site of Daejeon Bethel House (currently HARAM, a welfare facility for people with disabilities), and visited the Daejeon Jungbu Police Station and Jung-gu Office on the 15th.

Just before visiting Daejeon, she also registered her DNA information for the first time in Seoul.

Carefully examining old photo albums and documents remaining at HARAM, she expressed surprise at seeing her name remaining in the records and wiped away tears.

Kim said, "If my parents are still alive, they would be in their early 70s. I wanted to find them before they passed away or before it gets any later," adding, "Even a very small piece would be fine, so I hope I can know something about my parents. I am hoping for a miracle where someone with matching DNA information appears."

She added, "I want to tell them that without any judgment or anger, I love my parents just as they are."

(Photo: Yonhap News)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.