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I Wish for You a Beautiful Life
Letters from the Korean Birth Mothers of
Ae Ran Won to Their Children
edited by Sara Dorow,
introduction by Mrs. Han,
Sang-soon
$18.95, ISBN 0-9638472-3-6, 144 pages, hardcover
Sara Dorow lived all of her childhood in South Korea and later
worked for several years as an administrator of Chinese and Korean
adoption programs. She is also the author of When You Were Born in
China. Ms. Dorow holds an M.A. in East Asian Studies and a Ph.D. in Sociology.
She is currently an Assistant Professor at the University of Alberta.
Ae Ran Won is a home for unwed mothers in Seoul,
Korea, with the mission of meeting the physical, emotional, financial
and spiritual needs of the young women who live there. Many of the birth
mothers of Ae Ran Won choose adoption for their babies, and each is
asked to write a letter to her child. I Wish for You an Beautiful
Life offers a glimpse at some of these letters, and is an invaluable
gift from the birth mothers of Ae Ran Won to Korean adoptive families
everywhere. These are voices not often heard, sometimes thick with guilt
and loss, but ultimately filled with a powerful message of hope and
love. Ae Ran Won is a non-profit organization depending on private
donations for much of its support. All proceeds from this book go to Ae
Ran Won to support its program for helping those mothers who decide to
keep their babies.
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Like all of us, birth mothers have stories to tell.
Unfortunately, the stories of birth mothers in non-Western
societies are sometimes inaccessible, ignored, or misunderstood.
The unusual collection of letters in I Wish for You a
Beautiful Life helps to bring their experiences closer to
home. Written by Korean birth mothers to children for whom they
have recently made an adoption plan, these letters allow us to
hear a diversity of voices. Often emotionally complex, they are
intended for mature readers and for parents or other adults to
thoughtfully share with children.
The letters were written by women temporarily residing at Ae
Ran Won, a home for unwed mothers in Seoul, Korea. Mrs. Han
Sang-soon, Director of Ae Ran Won, made these letters available
for publication so that people outside of Korea might better
understand the difficult situations of birth mothers. Her
introduction, a social workers’ Foreword for adoptive
families, and the editor’s notes all help to provide cultural
and historical context for the letters.
While quite personal, the letters in this book speak to a
host of shared experiences and emotions. They portray sadness
and loss, but also hope and joy. They are an important gift. |
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A Note to
Parents, excerpted from the Foreword:
This book is not intended for children. These letters express
the birth mothers’ innermost emotions at a very difficult time
in their lives. The subjects discussed and the sentiments
expressed may not be sensitive to an adopted person’s feelings
or needs, and understanding some of the topics that are
mentioned will take emotional maturity. Love and concern are
certainly evident in these letters, but so are other complex
emotions and subjects. Parents will need to decide when it is
appropriate to share these letters and discuss these issues with
their children, and are best equipped to select those parts of
these letters that best express what their children need to hear
at any given time.
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