Since 2009, ASIA Families has provided support and services to adult adoptees from Korea to help develop strong and healthy identities through a variety of programs: homeland tours to Korea, social activities, workshops and conferences designed for adult adoptees, and volunteer and leadership opportunities.
Podcast Feature: Color Shift - Empowered Adoptee Track at Camp Rice
Check out Color Shift’s podcast last host Nathan Choi speaks with folks about our annual summer sleep away camp and our new adult adoptee track.
ASIA Families is excited to offer a new adult adoptee program called Adoptees In Mind (AIM).
We are delighted to welcome you and look forward to supporting your journey of identity exploration, cultural reconnection, and community building.
About AIM
AIM will be facilitated by Kim Stevens. AIM provides a dedicated, supportive space for adult adoptees to:
Explore identity and lived experiences
Connect with fellow adoptees in a safe, affirming environment
Engage in Korean cultural learning and hands-on activities
Participate in guided discussions led by adoptee professionals and facilitators
Our goal is to create a nurturing community where adoptees can reflect, learn, and grow together.
Program Details
Date: February 7, March 7, April 11, May 9, 2026
Time: 9:30 -11:30 a.m. (sessions) and 11:30-12:30 (Korean lunch)
Location: First Korean Presbyterian Church-1011 Maple Ave, Rockville, MD 20851
A detailed schedule and additional information will be sent to you one week before the program.
Questions or Changes?
If you have any questions or need to update your registration, please feel free to contact us: info@asiafamilies.org
"Healing with our Ancestors"
Adult Adoptee Program at Camp Rice with
Hollee McGinnis aka Lee Hwa Young
and Kim-Sue Stevens
a body, heart, and soul journey of re•clamation and re•indigenizing ourselves to our ancestral wisdom
“Theme: A Journey of Friendship”
📅 Save the Date: July 23th - July 25th, 2026
📍 Where heritage meets healing—immersed in nature, culture, and community.
“Theme: A Journey of Friendship”
"Healing with Our Ancestors" is an adult adoptee program developed by Korean adoptee Hollee McGinnis, PhD, and co-facilitated with Kim-Sue Stevens that will be offered at Asia Families' annual Camp Rice. This program for adult adoptees is intended to be a space for us to re•claim those parts of us that were taken, abandoned, or forgotten and re•indigenize ourselves to our inner truths and ancestral wisdom. This year’s theme invites us to walk a path of friendship, coming to befriend ourselves, each other, and the world.
Set within the context of Asia Familie's Camp Rice for Korean adoptive families, this program is unique for adoptees who may want to bring their children to a Korean culture camp, or who are looking to experience a retreat space for their growth and meaning of being adopted. During our time we will engage in various contemporary mind, body, and energetic practices rooted in ancestral wisdom from Asia and South Korea to harmonize and integrate various parts of ourselves: East and West, suffering and joy, mind and heart, body and spirit, logic and intuition, giving and receiving, doing and being.
We will engage in activities that will explore who we are, the parts we are ready to set down, reconnect with those parts we had lost so we can feel more whole, and show up the way we want to be in the world.
What you will experience during the "Healing with Our Ancestors" adult adoptee program at Camp Rice:
Facilitated discussions on adoption consciousness, adoption and racial microaggressions, and trauma responses.
Meditating with the breath to calm the nervous system
Art journaling to uncover our inner friend
Cultivating inner compassion
Making pogi (whole napa) cabbage kimchi
Korean tea ceremony and meditation with our ancestors
Korean ritual practices and connections with nature
Conversations on adulting as adoptees: parenting, aging, health, etc.
About Hollee:
My name is Dr. Hollee McGinnis, also-known-as Hwa Young Lee. I am a Korean transracial transnational adoptee, adopted at the age of three and raised in an Irish-Catholic family. In 1996 I founded the adult intercountry adoptee organization Also-Known-As, Inc. in New York City and have been a community advocate for thirty years. I hold an MSW and PhD in social work, am trained in child and adolescent mental health and trauma, as well as conduct research on adoptee identity, mutual aid, and the long-term impacts of adoption across the lifespan.
I am also a long-time yoga, tai chi qigong, Usui reiki, and meditation practitioner, integrating Western biopsychosocial models with Eastern ancestral wisdom for my own healing and transformation. “Healing with Our Ancestors Retreat” is a love project for me where I share some of the practices that have helped me heal from breast cancer and the deep wounds of separation, loss, and abandonment.
About Kim:
I was adopted in Korea along with my bio brother into the same family. They were stationed in South Korea and I immigrated to the US after our adoption. I was raised in Central Texas in a predominantly white community with few racial mirrors and even less cultural socializations. Being in that environment, I was taught to ignore the racism and microaggressions which caused me to deny a lot of my identity and curiosity until much later in life.
In 2021, I went back to school to focus on an education degree. During that time, I found the adoptee community and shifted my focus to researching the adoptee identity. My research on Racial and Cultural Socialization for Identity Reclamation was awarded the Social Impact award at the GMU 2023 Undergraduate Research Symposium. With the support of Asia Family, I have been a plenary speaker, maedup facilitator and now a Korean culture class coordinator for adult adoptees spring 2026. I am honoring my truth and reclaiming my identity by educating myself and my children who are descendants of adoption. I am happy to be here at Camp Rice along with Dr. Hollee McGinnis for a second year.
🌟 Who Should Join?
Adoptees seeking deeper connections with their heritage and personal growth.
🌟 Limited Spots Available! Don’t Miss Out!
Join us for a weekend of joy, connection, and empowerment. Together, let’s celebrate the legacies of Korea and the beauty of every adoptee’s unique story.
👉 For more information or to register, contact us at info@asiafamilies.org
Let’s create legacies that bridge generations, cultures, and hearts.
Adult Adoptees in Seoul on the final Day of the 2019 Korea Tour
Korea Tour for Adult Adoptees and Families
Join us for an amazing opportunity for adult adoptees and families to visit their birth country. Led by ASIA Families' Executive Director, Grace Song, our Korea tour brings together our knowledge of the language, travel, culture, and international adoption experiences to offer you the trip of a lifetime.
From adult adoptee tour participants: "I would do this tour again in a heartbeat.... the best experience that I could have ever hoped for!" "For me, the highlight of this trip was meeting my birth father."
Learn more about our Korea Tour
If you have questions about the Korea Tour, please email Grace Song.
Camp Rice 2019 Adult Adoptee Counselors
Camp Rice: Volunteer Opportunities for Adult Adoptees
In July, we sponsor a three-day family and teen sleepover camp at Pearlstone Retreat and Conference Center near Baltimore, MD. Camp Rice is staffed by volunteers, primarily adult adoptees, who support classes and activities for children, teenagers, and parents.
From a Camp Rice volunteer: "Seeing the families interact and learn about Korea together has been incredibly healing for me."
If you have questions about volunteer opportunities at Camp Rice, please email Grace Song.
Adult Adoptees teach and volunteer in culture school classes
Korean Culture School: Volunteer Opportunities for Adult Adoptees
Since 2010, ASIA Families has offered the only monthly Korean culture school on the East Coast that brings together children, teens, parents, adult adoptees, and members of the Korean-American community in a welcoming and fun environment.
If you have questions about volunteer opportunities at Korean Culture School, please email Eunjung Choi our school director.
Adult Adoptees on Our Board of Directors
From the beginning, ASIA Families has encouraged and welcomed adult adoptees as both members of our Board of Directors as well as advisers to the Board.