The Past

At 3:20 pm on September 7, 2005, a young mother gave birth to a little boy at the Tu Du hospital in Ho Chi Minh city, Vietnam. The young girl was only 24 years old and was infected with HIV. She claimed her name was Doan Thi Thom and the father was Nguyen Minh Thinh, but no one knows the accuracy of this. She also claimed to be from the northern province of Thanh Hoa, again unconfirmed. We do know that she chose, for whatever reason, to leave her child in the care of the hospital.

The hospital named the little boy Doan Phu Loc. He weighed 7.04 lbs. and was diagnosed with hydrocephalus. He continued living at the hospital for the first month of his life.

On October 20, Loc was taken to Tam Binh 1 orphanage where he has lived since. On that same day, half way around the world, another young mother (the same age) was bringing her son home from the hospital. These two little babies, a month, and half a world apart, would someday become brothers.

As for Loc's mother, we will never know her story. She was young, infected with HIV, and probably unmarried. Perhaps it was poverty that kept her from keeping her child, or maybe the stigma of being an unwed mother. We will never know. But whatever the reason, God was watching out for this little boy and already preparing a family for him. It is through this young womens loss that God has chosen to bless us with our son...Ethan.