I was adopted at 5 months old and, for most of my life, I wondered about my birth mother. Did I have her eyes? Her long arms? Her prominent cheekbones? Her broad shoulders?  I love my parents very much but I always longed for that sense of belonging.  

In January 2006, my husband Hemang and I decided to travel to South Korea to see my birth country. This prompted me to try to contact my birth mother.  Duk Kyung at Dillon cautioned me that we had very little information, but miraculously, they located and talked with my birth mother two months later.

I met her on July 4, 2006. When I walked into the room, she hugged me and started to sob so hard that I actually comforted her. She told me the circumstances leading up to my adoption. The whole time she was stroking and squeezing my hand.

Her husband, Hemyung, was very accepting and supportive of me, even though he only learned about me two months before. He said my birth mother cared for his mother for 20 years and is a very hard worker and wonderful wife. His acceptance was his way of paying her back for her kindness and dedication.

He asked if I would accept him as my Korean father. That blew me away, because bloodline is so important in the Korean culture. But the biggest surprise I received was when they gave me their beautiful 24-karat gold wedding jewelry. I was so honored and felt almost unworthy of this family heirloom. I was speechless by the unconditional love I felt from them.

After about two hours of translating, gift giving and crying, we went out for an errand and dinner. We couldn’t communicate with each other with words, but walking down the street arm in arm conveyed more feelings than words ever could.

After all those years of thinking about her, the reality of meeting my birth mother is still sinking in months later. It was more than just a trip to my birthplace; it was a quest to fill in the blanks and search for my identity.

Lisa Anderson Mehta was adopted through Dillon International’s Korea program in 1975. Today she lives in California with her husband and two sons. She and her birth mother continue to keep in touch through letters.

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