For more than half his life, Greg Singer said he had always considered himself an American. But, by October of this year, the 42-year-old Southport man plans to head back to his homeland to marry the woman who stole his heart.

Although it's been 40 years since Singer first jetted across the Pacific Ocean, he said he recalls his first memory of South Korea as clear as yesterday. He remembers standing in his crib, his arms resting on the window sill, staring out at the big world beyond the orphanage walls.

In 1972, Singer was an infant when he was left on the front steps of an orphanage bundled up in a basket with a note, “Please take care of me.”

One year later, Jim and Becky Singer visited the orphanage and brought the baby boy back to America.  

Years passed and Singer thought nothing of his homeland or biological family, but he said something never felt quite right growing up in America, where Asians sometimes struggle to assimilate.

It was not until the age of 26 when Singer visited Seoul, South Korea for a week that he suddenly had a revelation.

“The first foot off the plane, as soon as I landed, I just felt comfortable there,” Singer said. “That type of comfort that you can't really express. They all treated me differently there.

“The U.S. is still my home, but I don't feel the same type of comfort when you look around and everybody looks like yourself.”

At first, Singer had no interest in seeing the orphanage that he was adopted from; but, out of nowhere, he had a sudden urge to revisit his roots.

Singer walked through the old ward of the orphanage with one of the directors who had been working there since his adoption. Suddenly Singer stopped abruptly, transfixed on the eerie sight that defied deja vu.  

“I stood there looking out the same window where I stood at as an infant. It looked exactly as I remembered it,” Singer said.

The director then told Singer that his birth mother had left a phone number there a few years before, in case someone wanted to notify her long lost son.

The next day Singer arranged to meet his family.

“I was walking down the driveway and I see these two Korean men looking at me grinning broadly,” Singer said. “Then three old Korean women just came up and embraced me and started crying. The only thought that went through my mind was, 'Wow, I hope they got the right person.'

“We never properly introduced ourselves.”

The three women were his mother, grandmother and aunt, and the two men were his brothers. The bond was instant; and although conversations were limited to simple topics and ideas, the experience was emotionally overwhelming for everyone, Singer said.

The years passed, and Singer found himself more in tune with his Korean heritage. He revisited his family several times after the reunion, and started to observe his true identity surfacing in spaces that were once empty.  

“Growing up I felt American. I always felt American,” Singer said. “I was going to have an American wife, have an American kids, and I didn't even think twice about Korea,” Singer said.

Nowadays Singer considers himself a Korean living in America, who is in love.  

Love beyond borders

Singer moved to Southport in 2010 with his adoptive parents, and opened Mainely Scooters in Boothbay Harbor.   

While continuing his family correspondence, Singer said he began to receive notifications from his intermediary translator, Mr. Kwan, who told him of a Korean woman of the same age who was smart, beautiful and most importantly – single. Her name was Eunkyeong Pak.

Singer and Pak started emailing back and forth. They never traded pictures, nor talked on the phone, but Singer eventually got wrapped up in the busy summer season and stopped responding to Pak's emails.

But Mr. Kwan the matchmaker was persistent. “Kwan didn't know me personally all that well, but he knew my mom. She had a hand in this,” Singer said with a boyish grin.

Singer decided to visit South Korea last year; and with some subtle harassment from Mr. Kwan, he found himself on a date with the woman he forgot to email back. Singer said within two minutes of talking with Pak, he knew she was the one.

Singer is now engaged to Pak, and they're planning on an October wedding in Korea. But first, the budding couple must tell their parents of their plans.