Angelina Jolie adopts 3-year-old Vietnamese orphan, waits for U.S. approval

HO CHI MINH CITY, Vietnam (AP) - Angelina Jolie adopted a 3-year-old boy she picked up at an orphanage in southern Vietnam on Thursday, greeting him with a kiss and a hug.

Nguyen Van Trung, director of the orphanage, confirmed Thursday that Vietnamese officials had approved the adoption. Jolie was expected to meet with U.S. consular officials, who must review the adoption before a passport can be issued for the boy.

The child's name is Pax Thien Jolie, said Trevor Neilson, Jolie's adviser on international affairs. Pax means peace in Latin, but Neilson said he didn't know whether Jolie had chosen it for that reason.

"This morning he woke up at 6, just like all the children," Trung 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.

The same vehicle later arrived at the 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.

Neilson, 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.

He said that as far as the adoption was concerned, she was receiving "no preferential treatment of any kind."

Jolie had arrived at the orphanage carrying her 5-year-old son Maddox, whom she adopted in neighboring Cambodia in 2002.

About 20 children dressed in traditional Vietnamese tunics, called ao dai, and offering flowers welcomed the pair as they arrived at the orphanage.

Jolie, dressed in a black skirt and shirt, was preceded at the orphanage by a phalanx of private security guards.

She filed adoption papers as a single parent, because she and her partner, Brad Pitt, are not married. Pitt did not accompany her to Vietnam.

They have three children: Maddox, adopted from Cambodia; 2-year-old Zahara, adopted from Ethiopia; and another daughter, Shiloh, who was born to the couple in May.

© The Canadian Press, 2007