- Headline: Interview: A Legacy of Domestic Adoption Success – 1,500 Children Placed in Korean Homes
- Subheading: Dedication to domestic adoption marks five years of service as Ms. Spoelstra prepares to leave Korea
- Source: Chosun Ilbo
- Date of Publication: November 13, 1971
- Summary:
Ms. Elvinah Spoelstra, age 45, affiliated with the Christian Reformed World Relief Committee in the United States, is set to depart Korea. For the past five years, she has resided in Korea, where she served as director of the Christian Adoption Program of Korea. During her tenure, Spoelstra introduced the new and unique practice of placing orphans with Korean families through domestic adoption. Under her guidance, CAPOK, initially a temporary shelter for orphans, developed into a specialized foster care and adoption system. She reflects on her mission: “We established a counseling center for unwed mothers in response to growing concerns around social issues related to promiscuity.” She came to Korea to help establish a domestic adoption system, noting, “Now that it’s successfully in place, I trust that Koreans will carry it forward with care.” To date, her efforts have helped 1,500 children find permanent homes with adoptive families in Korea. The Relationship between Christianity and Adoption of Children Born to Unwed Mothers
Around the 1970s, Koreans were primarily familiar with kinship adoptions aimed at preserving family lineage, making the concept of non-kin adoption an unfamiliar one. During this period, American social worker Elvinah Spoelstra, affiliated with the Christian Reformed Church, came to Korea as director of the Christian Adoption Program of Korea. She established an adoption system where babies were secured through counseling sessions with unwed mothers, then placed in temporary foster care before being sent to adoptive families.
Unwed mothers, often stigmatized under the narrative of "promiscuity," were thereby integrated into this adoption system, which resulted in a significant increase in the number of children adopted from unwed mothers. While the 1960s saw 1,163 children of unwed mothers adopted domestically, this number surged to 9,075 in the 1970s, reflecting a notable shift in the adoption landscape.
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