Discovery Days is designed for all adoptees, 12-17 years old, who were adopted internationally and transracially.  (Transracial adoption means placing a child who is of one race with adoptive parents of another race.)  This year's Discovery Days was held at Bridle Creek Horse Ranch and Resort near Sand Springs, OK.  Attendees loved the peaceful, country setting and many commented that this year's event was the best ever and that they can't wait until next year's Discovery Days. 

Be sure to come back here to view our 2009 Discovery Days photoshow (online coming soon) to relive the fun and look forward to another awesome time together at the 2010 Discovery Days!

• Why should I attend Discovery Days?

  • Discovery Days Benefits

  • "Discovering" Essay by Melanie Chung-Sherman

  • 2009 Discovery Days Photoshow -- COMING SOON!
     

We'll see you next year at Dillon International's Discovery Days! 

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2009 Dillon Discovery Days Photoshow 

D I S C O V E R I N G By Melanie Chung Sherman "I am only one, but I am one.   I cannot do everything, but I can do something;  and what I should do and can do,  by the Grace of God, I will do."  --anonymous

The weekend started early in the morning, but we were ready for over 60 teenage Korean adoptees to begin descending upon the Dillon office.  Phones began ringing....papers flying...planes arriving...luggage everywhere...with the excited teenage chatter increasing as old friends were reunited and new acquaintances made.  This would be a weekend strictly for adoptees, facilitated by adoptees.

This was my first Discovery Weekend and I had no idea what to expect.  I had already learned that the first weekend, which was held in 1995, had had only five adoptees attending.  I marveled how much the weekend event had grown over the past five years.  One of the first attendees shared with me how attending that first Discovery Weekend had completely changed his life.  Until then he had never addressed his adoption story, his being Korean, or his uniqueness.  Out of that first Discovery Weekend experience, he went on to co-found a very influential adult adoptee group.  And so I was prepared for this to be a very powerful weekend.

There was no time to catch my breath as the day progressed, and soon it was evening and time to depart for Shangri-La Resort.  I looked around the parking lot as we loaded luggage into several cars and vans.  I felt at home surrounded by the sea of black hair, almond eyes, and fellow adoptees who shared my hunger to be around others with a similar adoption story.  Feelings of excitement, contentment and relaxation washed over me.

After arriving at the resort, we separated into groups for discussions on racial identity, birth family, the adoption process, peer pressure, dating and relationships.  Each group reminded me of my own childhood and the issues that I had faced as I grew into adulthood.  As I listened to various teens, I became aware that the issues they are confronting now seem more pressing than the issues I had faced only five years before. However, the need to "fit in" and the desire to be needed and accepted for who they are hadn't changed.   I was reminded how the road to self-identity and self-assurance has many twisting and winding curves, coupled with questions about race, adoption, and heritage. The teens were asking the same questions that I had once asked myself, and I realized that the same hopes, fears, and doubts adoptees face are timeless - unique in fashion but identical in pattern.

For many teen adoptees, this is perhaps one of the most fragile, yet wonderful, times in their lives.  It is a time of discovery through questioning.  It is a time of clarity mixed with confusion and apprehension.  It is a time to soar, reshape and redefine who they are, where they are going and to reflect on where they have been.   

Just like these teens, I had journeyed the same road to discover what it meant to be Korean, American and everything in between.  Just like them, I had wondered about my heritage and birth family, who I might look like, and how to fit in with peers, family and American society.  But I also wondered how I would do on my SAT's, if I would have a date for homecoming, and whether I would pass my driver's test on the first try.  

The weekend proved to be as powerful as had been promised and a strong reminder of the special function that educational events such as Discovery Weekend provide for our teens to get together and share their experiences and grow from each other.  As parents and facilitators of teen weekend retreats, remembering to keep an open door to adoptees' questions, fears, joys and everyday experiences is vital and important in maintaining healthy and strong relationships.  Although they may not openly talk about the issues confronting them at this stage in their lives, it doesn't mean that teens are not thinking about them.  Essentially, our teenagers just want to know that there will always be someone there to hear them, to ask them how their day was and to lend advice and support in an honest and loving fashion.

Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old, he will not turn from it.
  --Proverbs 22:6

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