Personal Reflections

Click to Enlarge Also see Emmanuelle’s AVI Bio Emmanuelle Lê Thi My Hoàng - Writes July 2009 Saigon, 1969, I was born in a humid and heavy heat of a winter day.So my first days in contact with my mother would remain in a cornerof my memory forever without finding any pictures, any souvenirs…She had left [...]

Vietnam and Mom, This Adoptee Remembers By Daniel Brown a.k.a. Nguyen, Viet Tri I have many reasons for opening the early chapters of my life. But there are a few that sit on the front burners: First; I write my story for my two sons (Andrew and Christopher) in hope one day they will read [...]

Timothy J. HoyeVN Adoptee - Wauwatosa, Wisconsin, USA   From Cribmates to Soulmates This article was published in a magazine called “VIETNOW” in 1996   I was once an orphan. I am almost certain of that. But the airlift out of Viet Nam was so chaotic and maybe my mother just dropped me off on the front [...]

VN Adoptee – UK More can be found on Safi’s blogs: safidub.wordpress.com and vietnameseadoptees.com/2009/08/27/129 / Also read Safi’s 35th Anniversary reflections page.   An Adopted Vietnamese Story by  Safi Thi-Kim Dub Introduction The Vietnam War 1965 – 1975. A ten year war fought between the North, (Communists) and the South, (aided by USA and Allies). One of the aftermaths [...]

Tiffany GoodsonVN Adoptee Tiffany Goodson spoke to AV about her thoughts on being adopted and other issues, May, 2000. AV: Through the 1960s to April 1975, more than two thousand children born in Vietnam were adopted by families in the United States, how many are Holt International in contact with and how many turned out [...]

Adam JacksonVN Adoptee – Chicago,  USA   Jackson, A. (2000). Story first published in Chicago at Adam’s school, with Adam later given permission for AVI to publish it so he can share his thoughts and experiences with others. Archive / posted 2000   Only Beginning – Part 1 By Adam Jackson   For most of [...]

Stacy Thuy MeredithVN Adoptee – Colorado, USA   Meredith. S. T. (2000). Adopted Vietnamese Experiences. Edited for Adopted Vietnamese International. Archive / posted 2000   S. T. Meredith in Vietnam My name is Stacy Thuy Meredith, and this is my story. My mother’s name was Ngo Thi Diep; She was a 19 year old Vietnamese [...]

Vikki MurrayAdoptive Mother – USA   Murray, V.(2001). Adopted Vietnamese Parents. Edited for Adopted Vietnamese International. Vikki Murray, Mother of Adopted Vietnamese daughter, writes of their recent trip back to Vietnam in 2001. VietNam Trip 2001 April   My daughter Lieu Galvin, age 30 and myself (Vikki Murray) traveled to VietNam for the first 2 [...]

My Huong has kindly shared her story. The original document is here: Myhuong_story09.doc (61KB) My Huong writes Sept 2009: “I share my story with the AVI as I feel that it is also necessary to share some of my thoughts and feelings on adoption in general, also on my reunion experience and my work at the orphanage. As [...]

Scott RutherfordVietnam Veteran   Rutherford. S. (2000). Vietnam Veterans. Edited for AVIArchive from 2000   Scott Rutherford, Vietnam Veteran, Secretary of a group of Vietnam Veterans who have helped organise several projects of Vietnam Veterans restoring parts of Vietnam including building orphanages and helping with ecological restoration programs as part of their reconciliation with their [...]

Tuan Rishard ScheiderVN Adoptee – MN, USA   Tuan, R. (2000). Adopted Vietnamese Experiences. Edited for Adopted Vietnamese International. Archive / posted 2000 Tuan on Adoption The questions I always thought in the back of my head about the war was; “Would I have been born if there wasn’t a war? Would I have had [...]

Richard V. SilverVN Adoptee – West Coast, USA and Jedi Meister! Richard V. Silver was appointed a membership officer of the Vietnamese Adoptee Network (VAN) in 2003.   Silver. R. (2000). Adopted Vietnamese Experiences. Edited for Adopted Vietnamese International. Archive / posted 2000 This is Richard and I’ve love to share my story with all [...]

April-May 1975 – Kindly shared by Author and Quarantine station volunteer, Chris Sturt   I was living in the Manly Nurses Club at the end of the Vietnam War in 1975. I wasn’t a nurse, but it was a bed sit type situation which suited me well since I had just returned from England. One [...]

Jennifer SzethoVN Adoptee - Melbourne, Australia   M.s Jennifer Szetho – one of the Melbourne representatives of AVI and an Operation Babylift child, 1975, supplied the below testimonials in October 2009 by some key people in her life following her arrival to Australia. Judy and Bob Write: Bob first met Jenny 34 years ago. Bob was a [...]

Cindy A TalkerAdoptive Mother – USA   Talker, C. (2000). Adopted Vietnamese Parents. Edited for Adopted Vietnamese International.Archive from 2000   Mrs A Talker, mother of three Adopted Vietnamese Children Mrs A Talker, mother of three adopted Vietnamese children, spoke to AV about her decision to adoped children from Vietnam and her recent addition, a [...]

Indigo W.VN Adoptee – Australian The original Word Document can be downloaded here:www.multiculturalaustralia.edu.au/library/media/Document/id/714   From Saigon to Sydney by Indigo W   The story of growing up in Australia post-Vietnam War as an adopted Vietnamese child in a non-Asian family in Sydney. People would yell at me as a kid, “Go home” and I’d get confused. To [...]

On the Queen’s birthday Indigo Willing became the recipient of a Medal in the Order of Australia in the General Division: ‘For service to the community through the establishment and administration of Adopted Vietnamese International’, Awarded by the Council for the Order of Australia and Approved by His Excellency Major General Michael Jeffery, Governor-General of the Commonwealth of Australia AC CVO [...]

Same Eyes, Different View by Indigo Willing   Same eyes, different view I so much want to look like I belong to you In your Vietnamese eyes do I have a similar face Are our bodies identified as same by a visual ‘race’ But behind my eyes is a white puzzled gaze Built from a [...]

VN Adoptee – now living in NY, USAJoshua Woerthwein (Chiem Ngoc)VAN Organisation Webmaster: www.van-online.org   Baltimore Thoughts: Joshua Woerthwein Mitchell. M. (2000). Adopted Vietnamese Experiences. Edited for Adopted Vietnamese International.   The weekend of April 28th-30th, 2000, I attended a reunion of the first generation of Vietnamese adoptees. It was held in Baltimore, MD, and was [...]

NOTE:  Nola Wunderle has let us know (4 March ’12) that circumstances in the original story posted here have changed.  If you have any questions about how the Wunderle family conducted their search and reunions, please contact her directly. She can be found on Facebook. Thank you.