Korea Tour Experience
by Connie Hooper

It felt strangely like we were going home.  As we made preparations for Dillon International’s Visit Korea Tour,  it felt like more than a journey to our children’s homeland.  Although it began as a long-awaited family vacation, it became a profoundly spiritual and life-changing journey home, for all of us.

It was truly a dream come-true for our family.  The years at Korean Heritage Camp had prepared us well for the experience, and on the Visit Korea Tour with Dillon, we were able to see and experience more of Korea, its culture and traditions, than we thought possible in the short two weeks that we were there.  We fell instantly and hopelessly in love with the country and its people.

It began with a dramatic arrival at the state-of-the-art Incheon airport, where we were greeted with long-stemmed roses and a welcome reception.  We were privileged to spend our first week in Korea at the guesthouse of Eastern Social Welfare Society, where our children had begun their journeys home to us.  Meeting Dr. Kim, the founder of the agency, was one of the many highlights of the tour.  His gracious and loving presence was overwhelming and unforgettable.

During the tour, we were thrilled to finally be able to meet the foster mothers who had lovingly cared for each of our children, and visit the hospital where our son was born, truly the highlight of the tour for him.  We visited an orphanage, held babies, met birthmothers, listened to their stories and shared ours.  We shopped at Korean markets, visited schools, toured museums, Buddhist temples, historic palaces, and even the DMZ, a moving experience that we will never forget.  We learned to cook Korean food, perform a traditional tea ceremony, and play the changu (hourglass drum).  We dined on delicious Korean food, experienced life as it was in a historic Korean village, and spent an evening in the home of a gracious Korean family.  Our children were delighted to be able to spend an afternoon at Everland, the Korean equivalent of Disneyland. 

Any concerns we had about anti-American sentiment quickly dissipated, as we experienced the overwhelming hospitality of the Korean people throughout our tour.  We developed friendships in our tour group and in the wonderful people we met in Korea that we will cherish forever.

One of the many dramatic results of the tour was the change we saw in our children while we were there. In each of them, we witnessed a remarkable transformation, as they gained confidence, affirmed their identities, and embraced their Korean heritage proudly, a positive change which has endured since our return home.  Finally, a climax of our tour, which brought our adoption experience full circle, was the blessing of escorting a precious baby home, a powerful and intensely emotional experience that will remain in our hearts always. 

We left Korea reluctantly, each of us personally and powerfully affected by our experience there; now more than ever aware that Korea has been and will always be a part of us.  Although we had initially made the journey assuming that this would be a once-in-a-lifetime trip, we knew, as we left this beautiful and enticing country, that we would return one day, in response to the yearning that would forever be a part of us, calling us back home, to Korea.