[Amymomamie]

Just wondering if anyone has used the escort service option when adopting from Korea. We have choosen this option as we have a 3 yr old daughter. I never thought to ask our agency who are the people who escort.

Thanks!

[Joyful1]

We did the escort option for our son and most likely will again for our daughter. With our agency, we had to meet the babies in Detroit. Our escort was very sweet (but didn't speak much English) and took a picture of all of us to take back to the foster mother. It's my understanding (somebody correct me if this is wrong), but I think some of the escorts are foster mothers for the agency. After so many years as a foster mother, they are able to come to the US and visit with the children they fostered. The younger escorts must just work for through the agency and their job is to escort babies to the US.

As I said, we will most likely do it again when we adopt a baby girl - it's a great program. Hope that helps!

[ndoscoptec]

Our escort was an Korean adoption agency worker who was in the US for a meeting with another agency. She practicly handed us our son and ran, she had a connecting flight to catch. I know that some families who travel for Homeland tours will escort babies home. When my husband was stationed in Korea with the Navy, the military personel would escort in order to get a free flight home.
MLH

[hscvt95]

I think it depends on which agency you are using..ours actually have escorts from the USA that go to Korea to bring kids home. We were originally thinking that we were going to have to go to Detroit to get our son..but they ended up flying him right into Madison WI (which is where we live)...they had an escort that brought him from Korea to Minneapolis and then another escort that brought him from Minneapolis to Madison. I still keep in touch with both escorts and they are either current employees of Northwest Airlines or retired. (or family members)...who have gone through training with the agency to be able to escort.

[sak9645]

In my experience, the escorts are usually people who work for the Korean Social Welfare Institute or for your U.S. agency. Sometimes, they may be people who have already adopted from Korea.

The very dignified Korean man who recently retired as the head of the agency I used for my China adoption sometimes escorted babies. I recall one family, whose daughter is now grown, telling about how the man escorted their daughter and another child home one time -- and emerged from the plane with his very handsome dress shirt covered with vomit.

This man was wonderful. He thought of himself as grandfather to all of the children who came home, from all the countries served by the agency. But had a special soft spot in his heart for the kids whom he, personally, escorted.

Sharon

[hopeful2adopt]

We used an escort for our son. Our escort was an American man who was a Korean adoptee himself. He was young, I'd say in his early 20s. It was great because he obviously spoke English so it was easy to get answers to our questions regarding how he did on the plane.

[cthy757]

We had both of our sons escorted to Dallas (We live in Texas). We didn't know much about our first escort because she didn't speak English very well. She looked like she was about twenty years old and quickly met up with friends to catch another flight. The escort for our second son spoke English, and escorts about four times a year to be able to visit her daughter and grandchildren who live in the Dallas area. They were even there to pick her up. She planned to visit them and stay in the U.S. for about three months. I've heard that they apply with the agency that they want to escort for, and the agency does the rest. They let the agency know their preferred times/dates for travel, and then the agency notifies them if something comes up within their preferences.

Cathy

[tinkerbell11599]

We used the escort service for both of our adoptions for a couple of reasons (the main one last year was I'm deathly afraid to fly, this year it was because we had an almost 2 year old).

We didn't meet our escort who escorted our son. She didn't speak a drop of English and had to go back.

With our daughter's arrival, our escort came out and pushed our daughter in a stroller the greeter brought with her. We thanked her for escorting our daughter. She said her goodbyes to our daughter and left. We only saw her for maybe 2 minutes.

I'd have to say that our daughter's escort looked like she was in her late 20s-early 30s.

We were told by our agency that sometimes it'll be one of our agency's workers who travel over there to keep up their relationship with the agency over there. While they were over in Korea, they would go shopping and bring back stuff to sell in their cultural camp in the summer. It could also be somebody from the military that is getting a ride back home.

Jen

[adoptkoreablog]

A Social Worker (from our US Agency) and her daughter escorted my son from Korea. Our agency always send US representatives to escort children home, but I know that other agencies have other policies. I suggest you just ask your office.

[mdaisyq]

You will not like to read what I am about to write.

We, too, had our son escorted home as that was the only option over 10 years ago.

When I was returning from China with our daughter in 2000, I returned via Japan. There were 5 escorts with their Korean babies with them, also waiting to take the same plane to the US I and my travel group from China were on. While waiting in the airport, I noticed a very tiny baby laying on a seat in the waiting area with no adult around. Eventually, a middle-aged Korean woman showed up and roughly picked up the baby. I was so distraught at how she treated the baby and then to my horror I ended up sitting across the aisle from her on the long flight to the US. The baby started to cry almost immediately and the woman jammed a bottle into the baby's mouth to the point the baby began to gag and choke. When the baby kept crying, she started to hit the baby with the seat buckle. I was so UPSET and turned with tears running down my face to the Korean woman sitting next to me. She looked at me and asked the escort if she could take care of the baby for the rest of the flight. I was traveling without my husband, so the flight was hard enough, but between me and this wonderful kindly woman, we took care of this baby as well as my new daughter.

I noticed that the escort had a Holt travel bag (Holt in Korea, not the Holt adoption agency) and there was a number on the bag which identified the child. I wrote down the number and reported what I had seen to our adoption agency, which coincidentally also uses Holt in Korea, and asked that this woman NEVER EVER be allowed to escort a child to the US again.

I will always wonder if my son was treated the same way by his escorts.