I Finally Know Who I Am

by: Bree aka NoRang

You STOLE me from my motherland.

You never asked if I was okay with leaving my place of birth, my home.

Kidnapping me away from everyone that looked like me, my culture.

I was placed into your family. A family who knew nothing about my my Korean culture or heritage.

Hell you did not even have the decency to find out what my Korean given name/ Middle name meant or how to properly pronounce it.

My name is NoRang 노랑 It means yellow. Did you know that I would be teased at school because of my middle name?

“Breanna No rang the doorbell”

“What kind of middle name is No Rang?”

You had me escorted to the US like I was a package.

You didn’t even have the decency to come to my place of birth to bring me home with you.

You paraded me around like a show dog. Like I was this prized pet.

Looking for praise for saving me and for doing something good.

Looking for a pat on the back.

Treating me like an object rather than a tiny human being. Your child.

Why did you choose Korea?

Is it because you think Asians are the model minority?

Is it because you are determined to have successful children, so you pick an Asian bc we are so smart? Because heavens knows you treated me and my other adopted brother differently than your own bio kid when it came to academics. You always held us at a higher standard than him.

Is it because we are lighter skinned than other races so we are closer to being white?

Did you think about the damage ripping me away from my culture and heritage would cause?

Did you think about how I would spend 35 years searching for where I belong?!?! Feeling like I am not Korean enough, but being raised in a White family not feeling white.

Did it ever cross your mind to do research on the country and culture of the BABY you were buying from?

What was the price put on my small infant body?

Why did YOU choose to pay $20,000 to BUY a baby overseas when there are plenty of babies here in the states needing homes?

You fed into the Korean adoption baby boom.

You willingly forked over all that money, you picked me out like I was a pet.

Did you even notice that as a kid, I would be trying to soak up my culture in the library every chance I get? And there was never enough info.

“You should be grateful”

“Life could be worse”

“We saved you……..”

Are all phrases that have come out of your mouths on a regular basis. From my own “family”.

Now please tell me why I should be grateful to be ripped away from everything I should have grown up around?

Shame on you.

You were so selfish when wanting a child and a family that you didnt think about the the little things that are important to all of us.

35 years later and I finally see all through the BS.

I realize that your intentions might have been well meaning, however as I am always told….

Impact over intent.

Displaced.

Struggling to find a place to belong,

To be accepted.

Finally I know who I am.

I am 김 노랑 ( Kim NoRang)

I am Bree.

I am a Korean American Adoptee.

***Bree is a transracial adoptee, activist, parent, and owner of NoRang Photography.