Angelina and Maddox have completed the adoption ceremony with newly-named three and half year-old Pax Thien Jolie in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, and will visit the US Consulate soon to obtain his passport. (Us Weekly, excerpted below, is reporting that his name is Pak according to local reports, not Pax, but that’s the only place I’ve read it and a google news search for Pax yields more results.) I kind of reported this already, but I wanted to cover more details on it that have just come to light:
Angelina Jolie has successfully completed the adoption process for her new son. The three-year-old boy (mistakingly identifed as 4 by officials who observe the Chinese New Year) was picked up at 9 a.m. local time after Jolie recieved the official adoption agreement from the Tam Binh orphanage where the boy has been residing since November of 2003.
Vietnamese press also report that Jolie’s new son cried and hid during the official ceremony, and that the actress comforted him. Jolie’s other adopted son, Maddox, was also present.
Jolie and her two children finished the ceremony by 10 a.m. local time and then returned to their hotel.
The Oscar-winning actress must now meet with U.S. consular officials who must review the adoption before a passport can be issued for the boy.
If all goes according to plan, the 31-year-old actress could bring the child home by the weekend, local officials told the Associated Press on Wednesday.
Is it lame of me that I teared up a little when reading that the little boy cried when he was adopted? I mean, he may have been crying because he was scared to leave the only home he’d ever known or because he was overwhelmed or happy to go off to a new life. It’s sure to be hard for him, but the Jolie-Pitts can even hire a Vietnamese babysitter to translate and help out with the transition. That seems like something they would have already taken care of. I may have been crying because I’m a mom too and to think of a little boy like my son who so desperately needs a family kind of touched my heart.
You guys can talk smack about Angelina all you want, but she’s really helping this little boy, and she did it the right way. I don’t like her all the time, either, but she gets a pass for like a month for this. (I’ll be realistic.)
Congratulations to little Pak or Pax, we’ll figure out his official name soon, and to the Jolie-Pitts for their expanding family.
Thanks to PopSugar for the header image and JustJared for the image below.
I’m also a mom, and these stories get to me too. I can image the little boy being scared, he’s being moved away from the only place he knows to a strange country. When he’s older he will see the benefit. I think Angelina and Brad are great.
I’m a Mom of 5 and always wished we had more. Like Brad and Angelina each was planned and have been the best thing we have ever done. All of them are grown, ages 30 to 38 and as Angie says “in a heartbeat” would do it all again. Heartfelt congratulations to Brad and Angie and continued joy in your family.
I don’t necissarily LIKE angelina but i’ve never said bad things about her adopting children. She does good things. I would like to see her adopt an american though. Just once? 😛
I’m a mom (two kids as of nine weeks ago!) and I think what Angelina’s doing is great. I used to think she was crazy but she seems like a great mom and that’s what really matters (that and all of her good works around the world). Good for her (and Brad)!
I’m NOT a mom and never will be, but this story got to me too. Whatever else you can say about ‘Brangelina’ I think we can all agree that their kids are lucky as hell.
Of course the little boy was scared – this is the end of the only life he’s known and may be the most attention he’s ever received. That said, I bet we see pictures of him smiling within a month.
Omg that is really touching and moving. Fortunately this story get to us, otherwise we’d be heartless. I hope the transition won’t be too much difficult for him but I am sure Brad and Angie will do everything for him to feel good. Btw he is a cutie!! Hope to have more news soon!
I am happy to see that she adopted an older child. Seems that everyone wants an infant.
He is adorable!
Yeah, I choked up too.
He’s really cute. I hate it for him in that family.
As an Asian, I choked up at the comment, too. Why, on earth, why she decides to save the children one by one? I guess, we can’t complain otherwise people are going to say, shut up, you poor Asians, you should be happy that Gorgeous Jolie and Pitts even wants you and give you a future. Cause you got nothing in your country and you can’t grow up normally in your own culture. Because, besides Angelina Jolie, the rest part of world are only full of insensitive adults who don’t want and can’t help their own orphans.
The message here is: the ultimate happines for kids in the rest part of world is coming to America! So, America, be ready for our arrival! Here we come!
We are so miserable, really, so poor, so lack of education, lack of diginity. I want to go to Hollywood, and learn English.
I read in reports that the little boy was crying because of all the photographers waiting outside the building.
I don’t want to talk smack about Angelina, and giving a little kid from an orphanage a home certainly is a great, wonderful thing to do.
But am I the only one who’s a bit concerned about an already 3 and a half year old boy, being brought from an orphanage to a crazy Hollywood lifestyle, with flashlights and people around 24 hours a day? He’ll certainly take a very long time to get used to it.. I’m sure he has a much better life with Angelina and Brad, but still, it must be damn frightening to experience such a crazy change, and be brought into such a surreal world..
Maddox and Zahara were much younger when they were adopted, so they grew up with all the fame and what comes along with is.. I hope little Pax can cope with it well!
Well, the photographers aren’t really Angelina’s fault. They’re a result of Hollywood and everyone’s obsession with them. I know it’s their livelihood, but I wish the photographers would have a better sense of decorum and would leave them alone at times like these. But no, they’d rather scare a three year old boy than miss out on getting the best picture.
Angelika: do you really think she’s going to be dragging him out to movie premieres and shit? For that matter, when have you ever seen her take her kids to premieres and other big crazy events?
Brad and Angelina have a home in New Orleans, that’s where they’ve been lately. So I would imagine he’d go home there, not crazy Hollywood.
She did well with helping her other two kids adjust, I have no reason to believe she won’t do well helping this child adjust, too.
He is a little cutie.
I do hope if she adopts again she will get around to an American child. Ethnic children have a real hard time being adopted here too, especially if they’re not babies.
Angelika, I agree with your point that it could be hard for a child (with shy sensibilities) to adjust to being surrounded by photographers. I don’t begrudge what Angelina and Brad do, but I wish they’d use their money to set up a foundation that would help people like myself adopt internationally. That way, the kids get a chance at a really normal childhood, and I’d be able to do something that I will not be able to do. (I’ve enough money to feed one or two more mouths, but not enough to fly all over the world to get them.)
Wow, Julie, what a great idea.
I really think it’s great what these guys are doing – they can afford it, and they’re really making a difference to these kids’ lives. They’re not behaving like spoiled egomaniacs – they live as quietly as it is possible to do, they use the media to highlight the causes, and I really admire that. I recall seeing Angelina saying that once she had seen what life is like ‘out there’, she realised that the whole Hollywood thing is ‘not reality’.
I think a lot of us are overwhelmed by the heartbreaking suffering and poverty we see on TV every day, and wonder just what we as individuals can do to make a difference. It seems so huge. But the concept of thinking globally and acting locally is really effective. For me, sponsoring a child is what I can practically afford and manage.
This little boy is so cute I can barely stand it.
My husband and I have been sponsoring children since our daughter was born almost 18 years ago. We went though several kids already (they grow up, drop out of the program etc) and though we can’t afford to adopt another kid (adding a third child to the family), I’m happy to know that in some small way I’m helping a family that can’t afford medication or schooling for their kids. It’s really not a big sacrifice to make and I don’t even think about it in those terms. I wish we could do more since the need is just overwhelming. I think they’re doing the right thing and that boy will be bouncing around in a week.. kids this age adjust very well. I’m happy it’s an older child too and as to them not adopting American kids, I’d say that she gave birth to one and will probably have more. Besides, a child is a child, no matter where it was born.
does anyone know how many children in the united states need homes and stable family?
i guess she thought that maddox needed an asian playmate / brother.
whatever.
I don’t know why people bang on about her not adopting and American child. So freaking what? A needy child is a needy child regardless of its colour or race or point of origin. American kids are more easily adopted by American citizens, third world children are less easily adopted by American citizens. I’d say thats got something to do with her motivation but really does it matter? Please, concentrate on the positives instead of finding issue where none exist.
I like the smarmy dude undressing her with his eyes, myself. What a creepo. Check out the Boris Badenov moustache!
What a cute kid!
Zed! LOL! He’s probably just excited to meet a “big star”! Maybe not the best picture he’s ever taken.. Hahah!
Ginny, please, They love the photographers, have you ever seen Angelina with a sour look on her face when they are around. She probably invited them.
I wish the little guy the very best. I hope he gets all the love and happiness he could ever want. Having Maddox there was brillant. I think he can really help Pax through all this. Kids seem to be able to communicate with one another under any circumstances. Pax sure is a cutie!!
OMG all you people on here are just way too nice about the whole thing of forigen adoption! Go to perezhilton.com and see what it really is….angie is evil!
the child was crying because his caretakers at the orphanage didnt tell him what was going on.
um, how is it that everyone KNOWS for sure that Angelina is a good mom?? um, because you saw her anorexic legs walking beside brad pushing a stroller? yeah, that is a big indicator of what goes on behind closed doors. not.
and you are going to take perezhilton’s word on what foreign adoption is all about? puh-leeze. i’ve done three foreign adoptions. two babies and a three year old like pax. of course a child is going to cry when taken away from his HOME. it might take him a while to adjust – many months, who knows? she’s doing the right thing by taking time off to be with him and the other kids, to help pax and this family meld together. changing child’s name when adopted is a completely normal thing to do. someone said, “at three, he is learning to write his name, you should’t change it, etc. etc.” what a laugh. learning to write…in Vietnamese, not English. pax will have a new language to learn, a new life, everything. the name change is the least of his concern. most adoptive parents do a name change, though i do wish she would have kept his given vietnamese name as his middle name and given him the first name of her choice (i.e. Pax Vietnamese name Jolie, or Jolie-Pitt, as it will be as soon as Brad adopts him in the u.s.). but anyway, this adoption is totally regular and ordinary, as much as foreign adoptions can be regular and ordinary. and as much as i am soaking up all the news and pictures about him, her, them…this little guy does NOT need the paparrazzi storming them whenever they are out. imagine the fear factor there?? he’s left his whole life behind and now he’s being swarmed by people with cameras and shouting in his face? it will be better when they are home in the states and their own security detail can keep the vultures at bay.
I have to say that we will only know which children did better in 20 years. who is to say that Pax won’t be on drugs like all the others hollywood children? And whose to say that some of the boys he played with won’t be educated and doing well. If they truly wanted what was best for this child they would have moved to the country for a time and first vistied him every day, then had him stay overnight, etc. Make the transition a bit better. Pulling ahcild way in one day from everything that is fimiliar causes attachment disorder. This will affect him for the rest of his life, and not in a good way. Really thi adoption is all about Angie and not about what is best for the child.
i’m ashamed so many are knocking on Angelina for adopting a child.
okay, so she didn’t adopt an American child. Our adoption system as poor as it is, is far better than those in the impoverished areas of Asia and Africa. Most American orphans have a better system looking out for them, do you really think the most of the orphans in Cambodia or Vietnam have even a fraction of the chances American orphans have?!?
And for those who so ignorantly claim Angelina as a camerawhore who just picks up stray orphans on whim…your incredibly foolish. She has the money, resources, time and knowledge to do things the right way.
People don’t judge. I commend those who find this story heartwarming, it is.
She’s taking in a child. For the haters out there, what did you ever do? Please tell me. Cuz if you know Angelina personally and have adopted a few children yourself, than i think you may have a right to say something negative.
Unfortunately she said herself that she adopted Pax for Maddox. I think it wrong of her to change his name at his age..I don’t like her and never will, she has serious mental problems, which will affect her kids later in thier life..sad