PBS Adoption Series Continues with "In the Matter of Cha Jung Hee"

Click here to view this intriguing documentary which is part 3 of the PBS point of view on adoption series>

"In 1966, Cha Jung Hee was an 8-year-old girl at Sun Duck Orphanage who became one of the thousands of Korean orphans adopted by Americans in the years following the Korean War. U.S. military presence, Cold War politics and the realities of a war-torn society still struggling to climb out of the ruins made Korea the primary source for international adoptions by Americans, and it would remain so for many years.


All such adoptions can present daunting challenges to adoptees as they come of age and try to understand their split heritage. But this story had a further twist.

For Cha Jung Hee, the good fortune of being whisked away to an affluent country by loving new parents masked even more troubling questions. For one thing, Deann Borshay, as little Cha Jung Hee became known in America, wasn’t an orphan. As related in Liem’s earlier documentary First Person Plural (POV 2000; encore presentation Tuesday, Aug. 10, 2010), lingering memories led the filmmaker to discover that her birth family was still alive. And there was another buried memory. Liem wasn’t Cha Jung Hee at all. She was Kang Ok Jin, another 8-year-old girl at Sun Duck Orphanage. Her identity had been switched with Cha Jung Hee’s just before the latter was to be adopted by the Borshay family in California. She’d been instructed to keep that secret even from her adoptive parents. But why was the switch made? And what became of the real Cha Jung Hee?

Liem’s quest to understand the act that determined the course of her life impels her to find the real Cha Jung Hee. Armed with a tattered black and white photo of Cha Jung Hee and the shoes her mother-to-be sent more than 40 years earlier for her journey to America, Liem returns to a bustling, modern Seoul and a Korea vastly different from the devastated country she left in 1966. As In the Matter of Cha Jung Hee shows through old photos and newsreels, endemic poverty, lingering destruction from the war and a huge population of orphaned, lost and abandoned children set off humanitarian campaigns in a dozen Western countries to encourage adoption of Korean children. During Liem’s visit, she attends the annual gathering of the International Korean Adoptee Associations and meditates on the randomness of fate that turned her into an American rather than one of the Swedes or Danes she meets. She also learns that the tide of Korean adoptees — some 200,000 — peaked as recently as 1985, well after the country had become developed, democratic and prosperous. In the Matter of Cha Jung Hee raises a troubling question: How and why did a humanitarian effort become an industry worth millions of dollars?

But Liem’s first stop is the Sun Duck Orphanage. She reviews the orphanage’s files with current director Kim Dae Jin and discovers another photo of the real Cha Jung Hee. A switch certainly was made, and the social worker who cared for the children reveals the reason: Cha Jung Hee was not an orphan. On a night shortly before she was due to leave for the United States, her father showed up and took her away. Rather than disappoint the Borshays, the orphanage substituted one 8-year-old girl for another, complete with a forged passport and brand new American shoes. Was this a purely humane decision or was there some financial motivation as well? In any case, the real Cha Jung Hee had disappeared with her father, and no one knew what had become of her.

Liem’s quest leads her and her interpreter to make calls to more than 100 Cha Jung Hees in the phone book, and she meets several women named Cha Jung Hee who turn out not to be the one she seeks, but who give her a glimpse of who she might have become. Then Liem visits the Police Separated Families Bureau and encounters a policeman who specializes in reuniting families. The stories of Koreans who lived through the dark past, begin to accumulate, offering a rare and intimate recollection of a shared time of violence, social disintegration and difficult choices. But the Cha Jung Hee who haunts Liem’s dreams remains elusive.

Ultimately, she does meet a woman who may be the Cha Jung Hee she is seeking. The photographic evidence is striking and the outlines of the two women’s stories intersect. The little girl’s shoes that Liem has saved even spark memories and tears in this Cha Jung Hee. But there is no way to be certain. In the Matter of Cha Jung Hee still manages to get inside the stories that determined the fate of so many Korean children and changed the lives of many American families.

Both a meditative quest and an historical whodunit, In the Matter of Cha Jung Hee reveals that in today’s world the search for identity — by Korean adoptees of the 1960s and ’70s, or by any child displaced by history — may yield more questions than answers.

“For years, Cha Jung Hee was, paradoxically, both a stranger and also my official identity — someone unknown but always present, defining my life,” says director Liem. “I felt I had to search for Cha Jung Hee finally to put my questions to rest by meeting her and finding out how she has fared. In the course of my journey, I met many women named Cha Jung Hee and through their stories imagine what my life would have been like had I stayed in Korea.

“Although I arrived in America walking in Cha Jung Hee’s shoes, I can see now the path I’ve taken has always been my own. And if I look closely, I can see a glimpse of the girl I used to be and I can picture her stepping out of the past and into the present.”

In the Matter of Cha Jung Hee is a co-production of Mu Films and the Independent Television Service (ITVS) in association with the Center for Asian American Media (CAAM), Katahdin Productions and American Documentary POV."

Waiting Child TINA

not a photo of the actual child Tina

This sweet brown-eyed girl has been waiting in Africa for many months to find her family.  She has celebrated other children's "gotcha" day and I am sure she is wondering when her new Family will come for her.  She came into care last January and was underweight and small for her age.  Since being in the care center she has celebrated her fourth birthday.  Tina has gained over 10 pounds since entering care.  She has good sleep and eating habits.  Doctors noted on exam that she has a systolic heart murmur and club feet.  Tina has been treated for her club feet by wearing splints at night and exchanging her right and left shoe during the day.  She is able to walk and play actively with the other children.  She is a chubby cheeked little girl that will win your heart!  Please email patty.fuchs@chiadopt.org for more information!

New Adoption Nutrition Resource on the Web!

I encourage you all to pass on the word about a super new resource available on the web on Adoption Nutrition!  This website has detailed information for adoptive parents on nutritional issues they may encounter with their adoptive children.  Topics include how to switch your child from a traditional diet to an American diet, food hoarding, and special diet concerns.  This is a super interesting website for everyone to check out!

YOU CAN HELP A CHILD FIND A HOME....

You don’t have to put out extra money or do anything strenuous! All you need to help another child find a home is call up our office and ask for a poster to put up at your place of worship, your business or worksite, or even your local bank or grocery store.

Remember all those “coincidence” stories you have heard or even experienced yourself as you began your adoption journey. Like driving past a billboard with large, beseeching eyes just as you thought that maybe there was a child out there somewhere for you to love and care? And then you took the road less traveled and your life has never been the same. Just a minute of your time to get permission to put the poster up (most places are more than happy to do this as long as they know and approve.  To request a poster please email me at kslconsulting@frontier.com with your name and address and we will get one out to you!

You could change the life of a child and family and maybe never know it!

We’d love you to help us get the word out.


Kathy L, MA

Hand Held-- Documentary on Romania

I encourage everyone to check out the link below to a wonderful sounding documentary that may be coming soon to a theatre near you!

http://www.handheldthemovie.com/film/

"HAND HELD is a documentary film produced and directed by two-time Academy Award®-nominated filmmaker Don Hahn. Hahn shot in Boston, Bucharest and Bistrita, Romania for nearly two years on this extraordinary motion picture about one guy with a camera, a band of New Englanders, four hundred thousand orphans, and the unforgettable story of how they changed each other’s lives forever."

Special Needs Focus-- Cystic Fibrosis

We have several darling little girls available for adoption in Eastern Europe that were born with Cystic Fibrosis.  Cystic Fibrosis (CF) is an inherited disease that causes thick, sticky mucus to form in the lungs, pancreas and other organs. In the lungs, this mucus blocks the airways, causing lung damage and making it hard to breathe. In the pancreas, it clogs the pathways leading to the digestive system, interfering with proper digestion.


People with CF have a shorter-than-normal life expectancy. The good news is that as treatments for CF improve, the life expectancy for people with the disease is rising. Fifty years ago, children with CF often died before attending elementary school. Today many people with the disease live into their 30s, 40s and beyond. Getting early treatment for CF can improve your quality of life and your lifespan.

In some people with CF, the disease begins in childhood. Others have a milder form of the disease and don't start getting sick until they are teenagers or adults. Lung function often starts declining in childhood, eventually leading to severe breathing problems. The most common cause of death in people with CF is respiratory failure.

The life expectancy of a person with CF is rising. Today some people with CF live into their 30s, 40s and beyond. The median age of survival—the age by which half of CF patients would be expected to survive—rose to 37.4 in 2008, up from 32 in 2000 and 25 in 1985.

What Causes Cystic Fibrosis?

A person must inherit two defective CF genes—one from each parent—to have CF. Each time two carriers of the defective gene conceive, there is a:

25 percent chance that their child will have cystic fibrosis

50 percent chance that the child will inherit one defective gene and be a carrier but not have the disease

25 percent chance that the child will not have the gene at all

How is Cystic Fibrosis Treated?


Treatment for CF depends on the stage of the disease and the organs involved. It may include airway clearance techniques to clear mucus from the lungs. One technique is called postural drainage and percussion. The person with CF sits, stands or lies in a position that helps free up mucus. The chest and back are pounded and clapped to loosen the mucus. A person with CF may use a mechanical vest or blow into a device that shakes the mucus loose.  Inhaled medicines are also commonly used for CF treatment.  These may be taken with a nebulizer, a machine that changes liquid medicine into a fine mist which makes it easier to inhale deep into the lungs. Some medicines can also be breathed in through a metered dose inhaler (MDI). Other types of medicines used for CF treatment include Azithromycin, an antibiotic that fights bacteria in the lungs and anti-inflammatory medicines such as ibuprofen to help reduce swelling in the airways.  Lung transplantation may be an option in some severe cases of CF.

Today, almost 45 percent of the cystic fibrosis population is aged 18 years or older. As people with CF live longer, they are more likely to develop middle-aged health issues, such as CF-related diabetes, osteoporosis and infertility in men.  A person with CF is always at risk of lung infections. Ways to lessen the risk include:

Frequent hand washing with soap and water or hand gel

Avoid unnecessary contact with people who have a cold or other contagious illness

Get a flu shot every year

Don't smoke and stay away from secondhand smoke

Children and adults with CF may need a high-calorie, high-fat diet to make up for the improper absorption of nutrients caused by the disease. You also may need pancreatic enzyme supplements, and vitamin and mineral supplements.  For more in depth information about living with a child with CF you can go to the following website: http://www.cff.org/

Attachment

There has been a slew of conversation this week on how to effectively and practically work on attachment issues with your adopted children.  This article puts a different light on the issue...What if the parents have issues attaching to the child?  Please check out the following article Confessions of a Mom with Attachment Disorder.  Interesting food for thought at the very least!