In the case of abandoned infants entrusted to our care and custody in the Saigon region, the method of obtaining birth data was for us to fill out an application for a Birth Judgment (substitute for a birth certificate).  The information listed would coincide with the number, sex, and approximate age of the group of children whom we had been given.  This application was then signed by the director of the orphanage and submitted to the court in Gia Dinh. In six to eight weeks the paper known as a Birth Judgment was issued.  It stated a name, sex, month and year of birth, and read "parents unknown."  These papers were then given to us.

The difficulties in obtaining these types of birth papers varied throughout Viet Nam.  In some areas it took but a few days, in others it took precious months for issuance.

Upon receipt of a family's acceptance of the child, a birth certificate or birth judgment: was then selected for the child from the birth papers provided to us by orphanages. An orphanage release was then prepared by us listing the name and address of the adopting family, and the name, age, and sex of the child to be adopted. Once the release was prepared, it was taken to the orphanage where it was signed by the Director or Directress and legalized. The legalized release was then added to the child's dossier, which was necessary to begin the proxy adoption and emigration process.

After a period of three months of continual effort and frustration, a Vietnamese passport would be issued. This passport was necessary to obtain the entry visa from the U. S. Embassy, which the adopting parents had initiated.

At times during this process, our struggle for a child's life was lost. When this occurred, another infant was selected and sent to the adoptive home using these completed papers. Since these papers had been arbitrarily assigned, had made it through the system, and had often contributed to a child's death (due to the length and involvement of their process), they were used to provide a future for another human being