• Korean Journal of Social Welfare
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• v.62 no.1
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• pp.83-107
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• 2010

This study looked into the inner experience of foster mothers who adopted children under 3 months old and found out they were disabled while they were rearing with Van Manen's hermeneutic phenomenological approach. In-depth interviews were used with six foster mothers who live in Seoul, Gwangju, Gyeongsangnam-do, and Jeollabuk-do. The study resulted in a hermeneutic writing with titled "Love of Mothers Who Want to Make Their Children's Dreams Come True" with six essential themes as follows: 'being at a loss wrapped in a dense fog,' 'venting off the frustration,' 'gratitude amid painfulness,' 'bold confrontation with prejudices,' 'disabled children's return to the center of their moms' life,' and 'expectation for their future life.' As they are disabled, foster mothers want to rear their children with more care and attention to make their children's dreams come true. Seen above, this could be interpreted as mothers' love to a life. For foster mothers, the disability of their adopted children is not a burden but an expectation for a new world. They help the children live by themselves. It shows that every child can have his own home.