Grace Park is a family physician at Carle Hospital who is also an advocate for orphans and adoption. She has been married to her husband, JT, for nine years; they moved to C-U five years ago. They are parents to a 6-year old daughter and a 4-year-old son who are homegrown, and a 17-month-old son, Joel, who was adopted internationally from South Korea about 4 months ago.
See why we think Grace Park is a Chambana Mom to Know.
Q: Why did you decide to add to your family through adoption?
After visiting an orphanage on a missions/humanitarian trip when I was in college, I was really moved by the fact that these kids had no families to love and care for them. I wanted to do something to help and I felt like one small way I could do my part was to open my family to a child that had no home. One less orphan amongst the 147 million orphans in the world.
Q: What hurdles were there for you along the way in the international adoption process?
First the major hurdle was getting my husband on board. He knew going into marrying me that I was hoping to adopt one day. After many years of sharing with him about the plight of orphans and giving him great books and websites to read, he had a change of heart. Now, he loves that we adopted and if we add to our family again, he wants to do it through adoption. Secondly, was the financial costs of adoption. It is a large amount of money but actually it is about the same amount of cost as having a baby in a hospital but just without the insurance. But we tried to be frugal with the way we live, save a bit each month, and since we had been thinking about adoption for five years before we started the process we had lots of time to save. Also we learned about programs such as the Federal Governement Tax Credit for adoption where the federal govetnment will give a family a tax credit up to $13,000 depending on income after an adoption is finalized.
There are also many employers who will give adoption assistance for employees who adopt and Carle, where I work, is one of them. There are also many grants and fundraising ideas out there so in the end we realized, the financial cost was not as big of a hurdle as it initially seemed.
Q: How have your biological children adapted to their new sibling?
My oldest, who is 6 years old, was able to understand the process more and we tried to have them involved as much as possible during the process. However, for our 4-year-old, who though we talked about adoption a lot before we brought home our youngest, did not really get it so he had a more difficult transition. I think he also just had a hard time being uprooted from being the youngest after four years so probably he would have had a hard time whether we added to our family through birth or adoption. However, I have to say it was tough for him to adjust to a moving and active 13-month-old little brother literally running into his life versus a newborn baby.
Q: What is it like to go from two kids to three overnight?
It’s a challenge! I have heard from many that going from two to three kids is the toughest transition and I totally agree! I think just being outnumbered and trying to juggle was the toughest part. Also the fact that our youngest came into our family as an active little 13-month-old who was still grieiving the loss of his foster parents was tough. It was hard to try to meet the emotional needs of each child in the midst of juggling daily life. But we had a great church community who sent over lots of food and babysitters to take the older ones out and that helped so much! Oddly though, after this difficult transition, I don’t feel like it will be that much more difficult going from three to four kids, but I have to still convince my husband that that is a good idea…I’m not allowed to mention it to him for at least another year!
Q: You are a physician – What do your kids think of your job? Do they dress up as you?
When I have to leave my kids to go to the office or the hospital, I try to explain it to them that I have to leave to go “help people.” So, I think they have a pretty positive view of being a physician. It was definately challenging when my second son went through a phase of HATING going to the doctors and anything associated with doctors, but that’s when I really became more comfortable with just being mom and not doctor to my kids. So at home, I’m just mom and I don’t try to doctor my own kids. We do have a Playschool and Fisher Price doctor set which they play with sometime, but at this time, none of my kids want to be a doctor when they grow up…they have dreams of being photographers, firemen, and Thomas the train!
Q: What compelled you to be a doctor and how does it mesh with your family life?
I wanted to be a doctor since I was in high school after I lost my younger sister to a congenital heart disease. She was in and out of the hospital so much that the medical field became something I was familiar with. My faith as a Christian also compelled me to want to be a doctor to help others who are in situations that are less fortunate. My husband and I have done some short-term medical missions trips and we hope to do more in the future.