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In many of South Viet Nam's young refugees, day-to-day contact with war has bred an obsession with death. Some children worriedly interpret wrinkles and white hair on visitors or grandparents as a sure sign that their end is imminent. After returning from a trip to South Viet Nam, Lee Sanne Buchanan fell seriously ill with hepatitis, and Kim-Oanh shrank back from her. "I don't like you any more because you are going to die," she said.
Faced with a declining number of American babies available for adoption, more and more U.S. families are trying to adopt Vietnamese children despite the problems. The Holt adoption program alone receives 200 requests each week. Though the Saigon government still considers most of its abandoned children unadoptable (because a parent may still be alive), a few restrictions are being eased. The adoption waiting period has been reduced to five months or less, and an unofficial policy of keeping boys over seven within the country has been relaxed as well. Orphanage limitations against adoptions by parents of a particular faith have also been relaxed. All this is expected to result in the arrival of about 700 Vietnamese children in the U.S. this year, the largest number to date.
* The others: Migration and Refugee Services—U.S. Catholic Conference, Holt International Children's Fund, Travelers Aid-International Social Service of America, World Vision International.