Seven Adoptive Families Get Together to Trade Tips and Share Experiences : From Vietnam With Love

The proud parents gathering around the table were a diverse bunch.

A couple in their 20s exchanged baby gossip with a couple in their 40s. A husband and wife with six children gave tips to a mother of an only child. A single mother happily said having a daughter on her own wasn’t as hard as she had initially thought.

Parents with young children tend to attract one another, but there was a more discernible common thread drawing these seven families--five from Orange County--together at a loud and crowded party room Saturday at Chuck E. Cheese pizza restaurant: Their children are adopted, and adopted from Vietnam.

“We came to compare notes,” said Karen Taylor, a Fullerton resident who, with her husband, Robert, adopted 2-year-old daughter Haley last year. “It’s wonderful to share our experience with each other.”

In the two years since diplomatic relations between Vietnam and the United States were restored, U.S. companies have rushed in to invest, Vietnamese emigres have returned in droves to visit and entrepreneurs, writers and artists have

made the country an expatriate haven.

So, some say, it is hardly unexpected that Americans have begun to turn to Vietnam to adopt children.

Immigration statistics show the trend is on the rise. In 1995, the Immigration and Naturalization Service reports that 316 Vietnamese children were adopted by United States residents. This was up from 228 Vietnamese children adopted in 1994, and 105 adopted in 1993, according to the federal agency’s records.

The reason for Americans’ growing interest in adopting Vietnamese children is that the adoption process in Vietnam is relatively easy compared to other countries and fairly expedient, said Mary Nguyen, whose Fountain Valley-based Amerasian Network works to find Vietnamese children available for adoption.

Nguyen, a former Huntington Beach resident who now lives in Vietnam, was in Orange County to visit her family this week and organized the reunion of parents whom she helped adopt children.

Pat and John Bastis of Laguna Niguel turned to foreign adoption after three attempts at adopting within the United States. Originally, they were interested in adopting a child from China. But while they were waiting, they received news they could immediately have a boy from Vietnam.

In late 1995, they flew to Vietnam and less than a month later brought back Daniel, now 18 months old.

“He is just wonderful,” said Pat Bastis, 46, as her little one yawned, seemingly bored with the adulation.

Sitting next to Bastis was Edson and Fatima Munekata of Anaheim, who adopted 2-year-old Andrew last year. The Munekatas also have a 4-year-old daughter, Amy.

“He’s a little bit shy in public,” said Edson Munekata, 36, as his son clutched a toy monkey.

“But he talks nonstop at home,” added Fatima Munekata, also 36. “He says ‘Ma-Ma’ ‘Da-Da,’ and calls to the dog and the cat.”

Jack Jacobs and his wife, Ellen Simpson, have stories to tell about their 6-year-old son, Joey, as well. The couple had three biological children and an adopted daughter before Joey joined their household last year. Later this year, Jacobs and Simpson are hoping to adopt Joey’s 9-year-old brother, who still lives in Vietnam.

They boast that Joey has quickly adapted to life with his new family, handily learning a prayer in Hebrew as he studies English.

“He enjoys all the activities at the synagogue and he likes it when we light the candles at home,” Simpson said.

“I also like watching TV and the cartoons and the Power Rangers,” Joey said slowly in his newly learned English. “I like Beetle Boy a lot too.”

“Beetlejuice?” his mother asked, referring to the well-known movie and current TV cartoon show.

“No. No. Boy. Boy. Like me,” Joey corrected her, finger pointing to his chest, before running back to the fun zone at the restaurant.

“See, he’s picking everything up,” Simpson said. “Such a beautiful, sweet boy.”

“They all are,” Munekata said.