Mar 16, 2007 — HO CHI MINH CITY (Reuters) - Actress Angelina Jolie hugged and spoke a few words in Vietnamese to comfort the crying boy she is adopting to live with her family in America, newspapers reported on Friday.
Reports said the almost three-and-a-half year-old boy, renamed Pax Thien Jolie, cried when he first saw his adoptive mother at the Ho Chi Minh City orphanage where he has lived since infancy.
Jolie was quick to hug him and told him in Vietnamese "Khong sao dau, khong sao dau" (No problem, no problem) and immediately started playing with him, Lao Dong (Labour) newspaper reported.
Oscar-winning actress Jolie kept out of public view after receiving the Vietnamese boy, but her photograph was on front pages of several of Friday's newspapers, which are all state-run in communist-ruled Vietnam.
The boy's caregiver said his favorite dishes included fried noodle and yoghurt and that he can count from 1 to 10 in English, the Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper reported.
Jolie fetched the boy from the orphanage on Thursday and signed adoption papers with authorities in the southern city, which is Vietnam's largest urban area with 8 million people.
The adoption will be final once U.S. embassy officials in Hanoi approve the paperwork for the child to travel to the United States, Vietnamese officials said.
Reporters, photographers and TV crews outside the hotel where Jolie was staying have not seen her since a car took her from the government building where she signed adoption papers on Thursday.
Jolie, 31, has two adopted children and a biological daughter with partner actor Brad Pitt.
She flew into Ho Chi Minh City by chartered plane on Wednesday night from Japan. Her son Maddox and daughters Zahara and Shiloh Nouvel accompanied her.
Jolie visited Vietnam in November and filed papers in early March through an unidentified U.S. adoption agency without Pitt because under the law in Vietnam an unmarried couple cannot adopt a child, while a single person can.