Glennia Campbell blogs the addictive Silent I, a "got kids will travel" blog (According to Glennia, it can be done!). She is also a contributor to the Silicon Valley Moms blog where I first became aware of her writing. We are proud to welcome her to the Kimchi Mama fold. We look forward to your contributions, Glennia!
Here is her story in her own words:
I'm half Korean/half Caucasian. My mom was a post-war bride who married an American GI stationed in Korea after the war. I grew up in a rural, all-white town in Ohio and our family and one Black family were the only "minorities." My mom desperately wanted us to fit in, so she didn't make a big deal of being Korean or teach us the language (other than the swearing, since she was too ladylike to swear in English). We didn't know any other Koreans until my mom got her US citizenship in 1969, and her photo and our address appeared in the local paper along with the five other new citizens in our county. After that, Korean women suddenly started showing up on our doorstep. Slowly, my mom made friends and they became a pretty happening social club. There are now thousands of Korean families in Dayton and environs, but back then, we were pretty isolated.
I think I'm a bit older* than most of the other Kimchi Mamas. I'm 45, so my formative years were mostly the sixties and seventies. My mom was 10 when the Korean War broke out, and that experience played a huge part in our family life and lore. I would be interested in finding out how other people view the war, the impact it had on families, and whether it's something they even think of now. I've been back to Korea three times, and each time, though I'm considered "white" and "foreign" by Koreans, I feel like I'm at home. In some ways, much more so than I ever did in Ohio... I have ten aunts and uncles who live there.I'm married to a Caucasian man (German/English heritage) and we've traveled the world with our son, Alex, age six**. We've been all over Asia, to Europe, South America, and North Africa. I started my blog to mainly write about traveling with a small kid—all the joys, adventures, and problems that occur.
—Stefania Pomponi Butler
** It's official, you rule.
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