The talk

On the tuesday night before thanksgiving I got a chance to hang out with a group of my friends from highschool. It was so much fun. We ate dinner and then played like a million games of UNO and some rounds of mad gab, but a little before midnight we all crashed in Devons living room. We then all started talking about out lives and stuff. Patrick Tieken who has been my friend for a while now was adopted from South Korea. I had to ask some questions. I have spent a lot of reasearching the things that adopted children go through as they grow up. I ask him so many questions and lucking he was patient with me and actually loved to me all about it. Patrick was only about 15 or 16 months old when he was brought home by his parents so he has no memory of his life before he was brought home. When he started elementary school no one seemed to notice he was any different or that his parents looked different from him. Actually he said it was till third grade that any of the other children even asked. That was when he started to realize he didn't know very much about where he was from. So in 4th or 5th grade one I can't remember he got to do a media fair on South Korea. He found out about the city he was from and all kinds of interesting facts about the country he even found the national anthem and made it play in the background.

One thing that I made sure I ask him was whether or not he had ever looked for his parents and whether he thought he would ever go to South Korea and find them. He told me that he did sometimes wonder what his parents were like. He knows that if he wanted he could find his mother but there wasn't even a father listed of his birth certificate. He said that for now he was content with the parents he has. He said that his adoptive parents are his parents and that they have given him so much more than he could ask for. They love him and have always taken care of him. Patrick has a younger sister too that was adopted from the same city in South Korea that he was from. Patrick said that it doesn't really even feel like he was adopted, he its more like well, we have different hair colors and eye colors from our parents. He said it just as simple as that except for instead of differnt color eyes he has different color skin.

I ask him also if he ever got made fun of. He said yes that people did say things to him. He said as long as you tell the children at a young age as young as second grade that its ok if other kids make fun of them because they are loved. He said that knowing that helped him to get through time like that.

I just thought this conversation was a good one. I enjoy asking patrick questions about this kind of stuff because he has a view that I can't ever have.

I just glanced in at my clock and I have realized that in one hour and 37 minutes it will be one week until I leave to go Haiti!!!! I am no longer nervous about it either just excited to get to go and meet all the kids!!