They tell me my parents died in a car accident, but I like to believe otherwise. I like to believe that my adoptive parents are my real parents, and that they just like to joke around and say I was adopted. It’s kind of hard to believe that though when they look so much different from me.

My “mom’s” name is Lee Min Hee and my “father’s” name is Park Seungtae. I like to think of them as my parents and not adoptive so I call them mom and dad without a doubt and I truly am their daughter.

My mom says that when she found out she could not have children, she herself almost died. She always wanted a baby, and she knew she would never have one of her own. My father who loves her very much said that to her it didn’t matter if she could not give him a child; however she still fell into depression.

One day a TV channel began to place ads on adopting children. My mother says she remembers seeing the picture of a beautiful Asian baby on TV and she begged my father to take her to the adoption center. With a hopeful spirit they went.

 They only had one baby at the adoption center, and a baby was what mom wanted. She wanted a baby to raise as her own. My parents agreed that they would like to see the baby and so they did. There was I, in the arms of a lady who was taking care of me. Mother remembers she saw me and ran to the lady and took me into her arms, she was so excited she didn’t even pay attention to the fact I was from a completely different race than them. My father did though, and was uneasy about adopting me.

“How are we going to raise a baby from Mexican decent honey?” he told my mother.

“Just like any other baby, please let’s take her!” she begged.

“But, she’s Mexican maybe it would be best that she would be raised in her culture…”

And apparently I began to cry as they began to get into the argument and it warmed my father’s heart and he agreed. They signed papers and agreed to follow all the steps to adopt me that they had skipped. The agency worker came to their home and they had to sign and show a lot of papers and then they exchanged information on me and eventually they were able to take me home.

My mother and father decided they would raise me as a Korean and teach me Korean. They would keep my original name Carolina but added my father’s last name Park. My mother also hired a Mexican baby sitter so she would teach me Spanish and also about my culture and my father decided I would be taught perfect English as well so I could be successful. That’s how they raised me and that’s how I became who I am. I got close to my “cousin” Krystal and we became best friends. I lived in the U.S from birth until High School Freshman year and then my mother and father thought it would be best that I meet the family in Korea and they decided to move, also my cousin Krystal and her family moved with us, and that’s how I ended up in Korea.

I like to believe my parents are my parents and that my father had Mexican ancestors and that’s why I came out looking the way I did, I like to believe that. I truly do.