Family
The Love of Korean Cooking I Share With My White Mother
In her illness, Korean food was all my Polish-American mom from Jersey wanted to eat. It was all that she could bear.
Hiking Toward Koreanness: An Adoptee Returns to Her Motherland
Adoption is one of those forks in the road where many of us try to glimpse through the trees to the other path, the other world.
The World Doesn’t Bend for Disabled Kids (or Disabled Parents)
My kids have been kicked out of many, many places for being different—just like I was.
Korean as a Second Language
I never would have come to Korean if not for my adoption. The language pulled me back to it, despite the decades, cultures, and continents between us.
The World Loses Its Former Shape: Caught in the Undertow of Grief
I whisper to my great-grandmother a burden I’d like lifted, one she might take to the next world with her.
When We Knew Our Boy Was Slipping Away
We were so worried about surviving that we’d forgotten to show him even little ways to live.
“Words Are Wind”: How Do You Help a Child Cultivate Both Confidence and Kindness?
I was thin-skinned as a child, with an ego that could put bruised peaches to shame.
The Perils of Raising a Black Feminist Girl
I promised myself I would not threaten, shame, or scare my daughter into compliance. I kept that promise.
My Mother Has Terminal Cancer, and I Can’t Seem to Stop Buying Sweaters
I’m stockpiling sweaters because they signify refuge, collecting them like talismans though grief cannot be avoided.
Act Right: Raising a Black Boy from Six to Seven
“I want him to stay as sweet and soft and cute as he is now. He is my baby boy.”