Angelina Jolie Adopts A Vietnamese Boy
Well it is almost official - Angelina Jolie is adopting a little boy from Vietnam named Pax Thien. The boy, age 3 or 4, had been registered as Pham Quang Sang at the Tam Binh orphanage in the city, but has since been renamed.
Angelina flew to Ho Chi Minh City late on Wednesday on a chartered plane from Japan with Maddox, Zahara and Shiloh. (There are conflicting reports whether Angelina is with all three children or just Maddox)
Angelina and the little boy were driven by car from the orphanage to the nine-storey Justice Department building in the city centre to sign adoption documents.
“This morning he woke up at 6, just like all the children,” Nguyen Van Trung, director of the orphanage said. “He put on new clothes, and he was very excited.”
Trung said the child at first seemed shy with his mother-to-be, he said. When Jolie and the boy left, the orphanage staff and children gave them a round of applause.
“It seemed like she was very good at getting along with children,” Trung said.
Someone carried the boy outside to a waiting Toyota minivan with dark windows, and his face was shielded from photographers with an umbrella.
Department of Justice in Ho Chi Minh City, where Vietnamese adoption officials said a ceremony was conducted at which Jolie officially took possession of the child.After about half an hour, two vehicles left the building, followed by a buzz of reporters and photographers.
Trevor Neilson, Jolie’s adviser on international affairs, speaking from South Africa, said Jolie was at a hotel in Ho Chi Minh City Thursday afternoon and had no plans to return home this weekend.
He said that she complained in a telephone call to him that paparazzi had attacked her car as she left the orphanage, pounding on the door and throwing things under the vehicle to prevent it from going.
“Angelina understands the interest in her life, but we hope that the paparazzi can have some restraint when it comes to the safety and emotional health of this boy,” Neilson said.
The boy, described by adoption authorities as healthy, had been abandoned at a local hospital in 2003 and cared for since at the orphanage.
The actress, 31, filed adoption papers in early March through an unidentified American agency without Pitt. Under Vietnamese law, a single person may adopt a child but an unmarried couple may not.
In Vietnam, adoptions can take as little as one month if background checks are quickly completed along with confirmation the adopting family can support a child. The process can drag on for six months or more.
Jolie and Pitt visited Ho Chi Minh City last November and met children at the orphanage.
The couple say they have no plans to marry but are committed to raising their children together. Their biological daughter, Shiloh Nouvel, was born last year. Jolie adopted Maddox from Cambodia and Zahara from Ethiopia before her relationship with Pitt, who has now become their adoptive father.
The adoption will be final once U.S. consular and embassy officials give approval.
I have chosen not to cover this story up until now because I wasn't sure the details in the media were accurate. It seems that she IS in fact adopting another child and he will probably making his way to the U.S. in the next few weeks.
I applaud her efforts to spotlight regions in the world that need extra help when it comes to children, but I don't think that she alone can adopt a child from every continent that needs assistance.
We wish them good luck. Having 4 children will be a lot of work, but I am sure she is an old pro by now!
Comments