- Headline: "The Happiness of Family"
- Source: Kyunghyang Shinmun
- Date of Publication: January 7, 1977
- Summary:
Our home was always quiet, almost to the point of gloom. But now, warmth fills the air, and laughter has returned, all thanks to the arrival of our beautiful new baby. For ten long years of marriage, the sorrow of being unable to have a child weighed on me. The sadness in my husband's eyes was unbearable. In the end, we took in an abandoned life from an orphanage, believing it to be the will of the Lord. More than anything, I am overjoyed to see my husband’s face light up again. The baby, unaware that he was left behind by an ignorant unwed mother, is nothing but pure and innocent. Seeing my husband carefully mix formula and feed the baby with such satisfaction has lifted the heavy burden from my heart. It has taught me, once again, what true family happiness means. (Anonymous contributor, Junggok-dong, Seongdong-gu, Seoul) This is a personal essay written by a married, infertile woman who adopted the child of an unwed mother. Despite the fact that the unwed mother relinquished her child due to the social stigma surrounding unwed motherhood, she is nevertheless labeled as “an ignorant unwed mother.” At the same time, the author internalizes blame for infertility, treating it as a personal failing rather than a shared responsibility between spouses. By asserting that adopting the unwed mother’s child has allowed her to form a 'complete' family, this essay underscores how modern adoption has been practiced as a means of reinforcing the idea of making a “normal family.”
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