An unexpected reunion

Accompanied by her mother, Lake Oswego’s Robin Gellinger meets her birth parents -- for the first time -- during a trip to South Korea

By Kara Becker

The Lake Oswego Review, Jul 19, 2007, Updated Oct 30, 2009

Submitted Photo / The Lake Oswego Review

During a trip to South Korea, Lake Oswego native Robin Gellinger, far left in front, cozies up to her birth mother, along with, from left, her mom Cindy Gellinger, Robin’s biological sister, Robin’s biological grandmother and Robin’s biological aunt.

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Few are aware of true-life stories of adopted children who long to find their birth parents – and eventually do.

Fictional accounts of similar tales and searches are usually left to sappy made-for-TV movies or novels in a bookstore.

Nevertheless, one may be surprised to find out that one of these success stories happened to a young woman from Lake Oswego.

Nineteen-year-old Robin Gellinger was adopted from Seoul, South Korea, when she was four months old in 1987. She has a younger brother, also from Seoul, who was adopted when he was six months old. Their mother, Cindy Gellinger, was unable to have her own biological children, so she and her husband decided to adopt two beautiful babies from Korea.

The Gellingers have lived in Lake Oswego for the last 15 years or so, with Robin going to Westside Christian High School for three years and home schooling for the last year so that she could graduate early. Her younger brother is currently home schooled as well.

Robin and her mom had always talked about taking a trip back to Korea after Robin graduated to see her birthplace and get a taste of the culture. They went on a 12-day trip in June and stayed with a family friend of theirs, a young man named Kim Jae-Young, who’d stayed in their home twice – once about 10 years ago as a teenager, when he visited with a group of young people for three weeks to learn about American culture and study English, and the second time when he came independently last summer to stay in their home for two weeks.

Robin was adopted through Holt International Children’s Services, whose office was in Seoul. Robin and Cindy planned to visit the office the second day they were there to view her adoption record and see the hospital where she was born.

Upon arrival they were told by a social worker that the hospital where Robin was born was no longer in existence, and that her birth parents had not once tried to contact the office to inquire about her. They said that they would try to get ahold of them while they were still here but that it was unlikely that they would contact them as sometimes it can take several months.

Robin and Cindy spent the next eight days seeing the sights in Seoul. Cindy had taken Korean language classes for six months before the trip, so she was able to sound out words and recognize symbols, which was helpful while they were navigating around Seoul by themselves.

After getting back to their room on the Thursday night before they were to leave that Saturday, Robin and Cindy got an e-mail from a case worker at Holt. The e-mail said that they had contacted the father and that he would love to see her the next day before they left.

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