(Another of Mom Sawyer’s notes about adopting David DaeKyo. I am making little to no edits, so that we get her words.)
We adopted David Shim DaeKyo two years after our Japanese son died of cancer at age 9, but that is a different story. This is about David.
He was born in Korea in 1970. His father was killed when he fell off of a garbage truck. David’s mother took him to the woods when he was 5 and left him there. She had no way to support him, his sister, and baby brother.
After a while, the police found him and took him to a state orphanage in Seoul. He was 8 when we adopted him through Holt International Children’s Services.
At this time, we were stationed at Klamath Falls, Oregon, by the Air Force.
One summer day we decided to take David over to see the Giant Redwoods. Big mistake!
When we got out of the car and began walking up the path, David started crying and screaming and then running back to the car. I wondered what was wrong with that child. Of course, we didn’t know about the earlier trauma in his life, and he still didn’t speak any English in order to tell us.
We drove out of that beautiful, peaceful place … no longer peaceful for us.
