Transcript
Richard Silver, Vietnam adoptee who returns to Vietnam
Interviews by Dmae Roberts/Sara Kolbet
Dates: 3/28/05, 4/4/05, 7/7/05
2 Discs; Disc 1, 71:29, 9 Tracks; Disc 2, 41:05, 6 Tracks
DISC 1
TRACK 1 – 33:29
D: Introduce yourself.
RICHARD: I’m Richard Silver and I was adopted from South Vietnam in 1974 and I came out in October, so five months prior to the actual start of Operation Babylift. I flew into San Francisco where my parents, who live in Ashland, Oregon, picked me up and I traveled back to Oregon.
D: How old you were.
RICHARD: I was two and a half years when I came over. I was one of the older kids. I don’t remember anything. When I came over I was speaking Vietnamese from what I picked up from the sisters. But as far as retaining the language and images, I don’t know. I wish I did, to connect with the heritage.
D: How do you know?
RICHARD: I know because the things the caretakers…. I know because those who took care of me in the orphanage were able to communicate with my parents through letters. They said I was a happy baby. Later in my life I was able to reconnect with one of the caregivers in the orphanages and he was able to tell me how I was as a baby child. So based on what other people have told, that’s how I can remember and know about what I was like.
D: Earliest memory?
RICHARD: Vietnam itself, none. My earliest memory of my childhood? Probably when I came home and started interacting with my family and it became more real that I was staying somewhere. My memory became conscious. And I could remember when I came home to now.
D: How old?
RICHARD: I was two and a half. But the time I started remembering things, let’s say three years old.
D: Your family?
RICHARD: My family’s great. I owe a lot of who I am today off my parents. I was raised in a Christian home, grew up in the church, and was always surrounded by positive influence. My parents raised me as their own. They said hey, he’s like the two siblings he already has. So I got the same discipline. I got spankings too. I was a normal kid, I didn’t feel I was different or had to be different. No one treated me like I was different.
D: Describe where you grew up.
RICHARD: Ashland is a lot like it is in the Mount Tabor area. Ashland is nestled in a valley that is really pretty. Southern Oregon. During eth seasons, it’s nice to live there. It was a small community wile I was growing up so there weren’t too many minorities growing up there. B the time I graduated that number had doubled, tripled. More Hispanics, African-American and Asian started mixing. Once the foreign exchange program started kicking in more minorities were mixed. But growing up in Ashland there was a lot for me to do. I would ride around on our bikes and try to be active.
D: Racism?
RICHARD: The only racism I experienced was when I was coming home from school and I heard some kid yell across the parking lot “hey, nigger.” And I looked across because I knew I was not black. And I went home and told my mom and she told me what that slang meant. And it didn’t crush me.
D: When did you recognize you were Asian?
RICHARD: When I interacted with other Asians. I was raised in a Caucasian home so I had a Caucasian point of view. So when I interacted with other Asians, I saw them as different. When I looked in the mirror, I saw I was brown. When I put my arm against my mom’s. When I studied my own features, I knew that I was Asian. But I didn’t let that get to me until about ten years ago when I graduated. That I really began to realize and understand my heritage – being Asian and being Vietnamese. Because all growing up I’ve always had this Caucasian perspective, because of how I was raised.
D: Describe it.
RICHARD: Caucasian perspective is anyone I saw…my perspective of Caucasian is anyone I saw who was not white was different. I would look at them, Asians or African Americans, and consciously say to myself they’re different. Not realizing I am different too. So I didn’t make that difference until I started going to college in Eugene. While I was walking around the campus of U of O I saw a melting pot of minorities and thought I’m no different from the people here. So it eased my thoughts of myself. I began to accept who I was and that’s when the acceptance of my adoption, of my heritage, my nationality, began to take place.
D: How long ago?
RICHARD: College was 1990. I graduated college in 1990. I went to Northwest Christian College which is across from U of O and I would observe different nationalities.
D: Did you make friends with Asians?
RICHARD: Sure. And I was one of the first to interact with eh foreign exchange students. From Puerto Rico, Japanese. I knew we could have a connection. I interacted with them in a respectful manner.
D: When you made friends with other Asians and told them you were adopted, their reaction?
RICHARD: They knew I was adopted. But it wasn’t like, oh really? They almost accepted me like I was part of the family and we went on. It wasn’t a big issue we harped on.
D: How do you find your identity?
RICHARD: I personally do not have identity issues. Not in a traumatic way. Because of the upbringing my family had I had no reason to be angry. I had no reason to harbor feelings like why did you take me from my country? My identity today really has a big play now and as I look back on growing up it’s puzzle that’s starting to come together. My journey to find my heritage began shortly before I moved to Portland. My sister in law started working with the HOLT adoption agency in Eugene. So I worked with that. And being around social workers and seeing pictures gave me a spark to say there is more to my adoption than being Rick Silver. But it wasn’t until I started courting with my fiancé that my desire to find my identity began. My mother in law was very curious about my past. I married a Caucasian wife. So her daughter dating someone of a different race piqued her curiosity. A few years ago, prior to our marriage, my in laws hosted a foreign exchange student from the Philippines, so they had some interaction with the Asian culture as well. So my mother in law started firing off questions, do you want to go back to Vietnam? Who are your parents and I knew these are questions I can’t avoid because I’m going to marry her daughter. And my wife’s sister also has this curiosity. And it’s her questions that sparked me to want to continue to find more about my past. I had an excellent experience in 2001. My wife and I got married in ’95, so six years later. There was a Vietnam adoptee conference in Seattle in 2001. I hadn’t been around too many adoptees. And I went to this with my wife and I was amazing…. back in 2001 there was a conference in Seattle of Vietnamese adoptees and it was a phenomenal event. There was a good turnout. It was a good eye opener for me and it was a big closure for where I am today. The pinnacle of being there is when a gentleman introduced himself to me as Ross Maider and said he worked to get babies out in Operation Babylift. FCDN. And as we greeted each other he said to me, you look very familiar. I was dumbfounded. So I proceeded by saying I have my adoption papers, would you like to see that? And he looked at my passport and said that’s how I know you, I took your picture. I was speechless. T he energy inside me, I wanted to burst. Part of my wanted to say you’re in a dream. The more I was able to put pieces together, because he referred to people in the home who my parents knew prior to my adoption, so I knew he had creditability. A few months later he emailed me a picture of him in the orphanage with me sitting next to him. It’s been an exciting ride from there on. The Vietnamese adoptee network, which I am president of, had a conference in Portland in 2003 and he was there. And he says to me Rick, you are my main story I tell people. And he is my story. So we have a common story we can share with others. That is exciting. That right there is my identity, a closure I have been asking all my life. Who am I? Where am I? How did I get here? The questions I can’t answer. And he was able to answer a lot of those questions. So the stories he tells, the stories from other adoptees. I want to go back now. It’s a matter of time and money, but I will go back to Vietnam.
D: It can’t stop there.
RICHARD: No. As Paul Harvey would say, that’s not the end of the story. And even when I go to Vietnam, or when I do, there’s still so much to learn. I cannot wait to go back and see the country. I don’t want to go back with an agenda to see my family. I want to see what my home country looked like, interact with the people there, and see what it’s like in Vietnam today. That will be one step towards finding out more of my past. And then when I go back again, if I go a second time, I may have a deeper desire to pursue my family ties, my biological family. And with that maybe find my biological mother.
D: Kids?
RICHARD: that would be very interesting, exciting, to know I have brothers or sisters, which could be. My mother, I know I was abandoned but in the meantime she could have gone on with her life and had kids of her own.
D: How do your parents feel?
RICHARD: My parents felt at some point that I would have questions about my past. My mother was always open with me. She was more than willing to share what information she knew. There was nothing confidential that wasn’t told to me. I asked at one point what would you do if I found my mother? And she said I would be very sad but very happy. But she also knew that I wouldn’t go back to my biological mother because home was there.
D: Adoptees are similar.
RICHARD: Absolutely. We all have the same story. I had the opportunity to attend a Korean event here in Portland. You’re in a room with Koreans. How does that feel? And I said I may be a different race, different nationality, but as we sit in this room we’re all sharing the occurrences that happen in an adoptees’s life. So we’re going to experience some similarities with dating, growing up, being around people. So I am in common with all adoptees. We can gain and learn something from each other.
D: Caucasian adoptees too.
RICHARD: Yes. I have a lot of good friends who are Caucasian who are adopted and they feel connected to me. They don’t feel different because someone else is adopted who may feel the same they do. They don’t feel the racial issues but not having the same biological genes.
D: Do people say where are you from?
RICHARD: When people ask me where are you from, I say off the cuff I’m from Ashland. But when I get to the root of where they’re trying to go, I say I’m from Saigon and I was adopted. Because I know when they see me with my family or my friends who are not Vietnamese, they are curious.
D: Any problems as an interracial couple?
RICHARD: No. I get that question a lot. But the society has changed so much that if you were to ask me that thirty years ago that would have been a hot issue. But today that is so common, it’s almost to appoint that it’s uncommon not to see that. So no, I don’t get that at all.
D: What advice do you give for people who have been adopted or other adoptees whoa re feeling different?
RICHARD: It is okay to feel that way. I guess my words of wisdom for someone who may feel that they’re different would be that it’s okay to feel that way. I don’t think you would be human if you don’t feel that way because you are in a totally different situation, environment. To explore why you feel that way and get those questions answered you had been adopted. There is a reason why you had been placed in a different environment but getting past that difference helped you find who you are.
D: Would you adopt?
RICHARD: We talked about it. But we have two boys, eight and five, and we don’t want to bring in another with a big age gap. You lose that continuity with your kids. That and I don’t want it to be sixteen years before my last kid is out of the house.
D: Have other adoptees adopted?
RICHARD: Absolutely. They adopt because they want to pass on what they have been given. Others adopt because of circumstances beyond their control.
D: Special insight.
RICHARD: They can pass it on and say you don’t understand this now, but I’ve been through this myself.
D: What and when did your parents tell you?
RICHARD: They never held anything from me, they didn’t wait until a certain age. When I asked, they explained to me why I was different. Why am I not white and why am I placed in this family? And they were more than open to tell me that, whether I was four years old or even now I ask that question as a re-affirmation of who I am. They were always open with me.
D: What were the circumstances for them to adopt?
RICHARD: They felt sorry for me. No, I’m sorry. It was a pity thing.. (ha ha). What my mother has told other people, they haven’t said this to my face, but they told my wife’s grandmother, they adopted you Ricky because they felt like they wanted some spark and a change in their family. When they adopted you, t hey got that. If that’s the truth, that’s a great answer. I think they wanted to add one more to the family and add one part of a different environment. When I was growing up they were talking about adopting another child from Korea.
D: Long process?
RICHARD: It took about 16 months. Back then they’re hand typing everything. And snail-mailing everything.
D: Did they go over?
RICHARD: The letters were going over to Vietnam because Shari Clark was able to correspond with my father, saying what a great child I was and how happy I am.
D: Do you have those letters?
RICHARD: I do. And I didn’t bring them.
D: Anything else?
RICHARD: I would say, for anyone who is adopted. Just to, I don’t want to say embrace…really take heart as to who you are in your heritage, because your heritage, whatever nationality you are, is so much of who you are as you grow up. And the family you are raised in has a big play in who you are, parents, siblings, cousins, they mold who you are. For those of you who want to adopt, I would say to raise your child as your own. Don’t make the effort of setting them apart but raise them as your own like you had them right from birth.
D: Do you know other adoptees who say I don’t want to know my heritage?
RICHARD: Absolutely, I have met adoptees across the map, one spectrum to another. Adoptees who don’t want to talk about it to the other extreme, adoptees spilling their guts and want other people to relate. Either way, there’s going to be a point in your life where you have to recognize who you are. There’s a point you’re going to realize I need to have these questions answered. It is a journey and a process that is a case-by-case situation.
D: Anything else?
RICHARD: May the force be with you.
TRACK 2 – 0:11
RICHARD: With regards to the adoption process and snail mail. Today’s adoption process is much more…
TRACK 3 – 0:58
RICHARD: In regards to the adoption process my parents went through, it was snail mail. Today it is so much easier. All the medical records are there, all the birth records are available, though respective of confidentiality, and now the adoptive parents go to the country. Whereas thirty years ago or 15 years ago the social workers or agencies brought children to the airport.
TRACK 4 – 2:38
RICHARD: Shortly after the Iraq war started, the whole scenario of Vietnam might be happening again, because now kids of Iraq are being put up for adoption. And now in Indonesia and the tsunami situation. So adoption is a never-ending process.
D: Iraq war?
RICHARD: Yes. I just hope the purpose behind it isn’t in the wrong sense. There was a thing in the article that Angelina Jolie was adopting a couple of kids and she did it almost for a celebrity look-at-me thing. And for me, that is a wrong reason to adopt. I would want to love a child and raise them with love and not for political purposes.
D: We did interviews with Chinese girls and if you grow up near other adoptees it’s a different experience.
RICHARD: Daughter from Danang was a situation that could have been avoided but still, the situation was real. I wish for the main character that she was prepped to know what to expect. I think the reality of her family in Vietnam to expect monetary support, that was not to be avoided. But to know they may be approaching her could have been prepped so she knew how to counteract that. As apposed to throwing her to the wolves.
TRACK 5 – 5:02
SARA: Introduce.
RICHARD: I’m Richard Silver and we are at my residence, here in Sherwood and I want to read a few excerpts from a document that my mother wrote up shortly after she adopted me. I’m going to read several paragraphs and this is the first paragraph:
Now our excitement and anticipation really grew. The reason for our planning and expectations now had a face (and what a good looking boy), and age (he was two in April which meant that all the children’s birthdays would be in April), and a new name (Richard Viet Silver). It was so natural to make plans for when “Ricky” gets here. All summer while I worked in the garden and canned I wondered, will Ricky like what I’m canning? It’s funny, but as we waited for Ricky’s arrival, the things like, will we be able to love him or will we be able to communicate with him never entered our minds. Wasn’t Ricky created by the Lord’s love the same as our two “home-grown” children had been? How could we help but love him? Even though Ricky was now speaking Vietnamese and would be coming to a strange language, that is not the only means of communicating. Besides the Vietnamese he would be speaking would undoubtedly be “baby” talk, so there wasn’t much point in our learning Vietnamese before he came.
All of a sudden we started getting a little apprehensive. Are we really doing the right thing for our family and for Ricky? Is it fair to take him out of his own environment and sit him down completely in a new country where language, culture, food, weather, etc. are all new and strange? Most of all, will he like us, learn to love us? That had been our prayer every since Ricky was selected. We had been preparing our hearts, our lives, our home for him and had already started loving him, but as little as he was, he wouldn’t be able to do that. He had seen our picture in the FCVN Center where he had been since August, but the concept surely couldn’t have gotten through to him the he would be leaving. We only had to adjust to a new member of the family, but he would have to adjust to being in a family, a new country with a new language and everything.
SARA: Do you know why and when she wrote this?
RICHARD: She wrote this because she wanted to document the process and the family’s emotional preparedness. It was a great feat for them to some extent because they were getting to the point that they didn’t know if they were getting a callback, saying your baby boy was coming. So the anticipation was building and building, so when I finally did come she wanted to get this all on paper. She told me she wrote it at three months, but I’m sure it’s within six months after I arrived. It was October 31st, 1974. So I was five months before the start of operation babylift on April 2nd, 1975.
TRACK 6 – 18:07
RICHARD: I’m going to read a letter from Terry Super who worked at the FCVN home in Vietnam. September 19, 1974. Terry writes, Dear Silvers, I have the unique privilege of knowing your son. My name is Terry Super and I work at the FCVN center in Saigon. I thought I might share a few insights with you about Quot Viet. He has the most extraordinary cheeks when he smiles. They go from ear to ear. He smiles often and has become one of my favorites. We have two pools here, so for…we have two pools here. So far he is satisfied with the small rubber one but seems as thought he will adjust to the deeper one easily. The most amazing thing about him is his sense of wonderment. He is at the age of discovery and enjoys every minute of it. I sure hope you will be able to enjoy him soon. Please feel free to write and ask me any questions. Sincerely, Terry Super. So that’s very exciting that my parents had an opportunity to correspond with some of the people in the FCVN home. I spoke to this adoptee the other night, I am the first other adoptee he has come into contact with him. He has less documentation than I have. When I shared that I had letterers of where I came from, he was jealous, but I feel humbled that my parents had such a good communication line. Okay, I’m going to share a hooker. In our first phase of the interview, Dmae asked me if I would ever want to go back to Vietnam and my answer was I would love to, but it’s time and money that has to do with my response. That’s the reality. This is the 30th anniversary of operation babylift and World airways is the chartering airline that started operation babylift. In June they are taking a commemorative historic trip back to Vietnam, entitled operation babylift, homeward bound. They are inviting twenty adoptees to go, and I am one of those selected. I am excited because I am invited by name. It is not open to the public. The person who coordinated this asked by name, who do you know from FCVN who came over who would be willing to go. And the person who was coordinating this mentioned my name specifically. And the gentleman who did so gave my name and number and we connected. So I found out in January and couldn’t’ say a word. They wanted to make it public April 1st. So now that April 1st is past I can tell. And I wanted to get my parents and my wife’s parents together so I could share the story with them at the same time. So I’m going to read this letter from world airways.
Dear Mr. Silver. This April marks the 30th anniversary of the operation babylift, flights from Vietnam to the US. It was a monumental day in our life as well as the lives of everyone who worked so hard to make sure the flights took place. On April 2nd, 1975, we flew out of Vietnam with the first orphans aboard a world airways aircraft. In June of this year, we at world airways will be commemorating this event with a special trip: operation babylift, homeward bound. Flying back to Vietnam on one of our wide body, McDonald Douglas 11 aircrafts. As one of the adopted children from the babylift flights we are extending an invitation to you and one guest for this commemorative experience. We plan to depart Oakland, California in June and crossing the International Date Line. Arriving in Taiwan and staying over and then arriving in Ho Chi Minh City the following day. We will stay a day and a half in Ho Chi Minh City, culminating in a banquet in the Unification Palace. Special tours and other events are being planned in Ho Chi Minh City. We will arrive back in Oakland on June 17th. World airways will cover the price of all your flights to join in Oakland, as we will provide your lodging and meals during the trip. We will require that you and your guest require a standard brief security check and a brief interview by someone from world airways prior to final approval. We want you to know we are also monitoring the current avian flu situation in case it becomes prudent to alter our travel plans. If you would like to be our guest on this special trip, please contact me. We hope you will choose to fly with us and honor us as we honor you in this historic point in time. Corporate officials and other dignitaries will be joining us as well. We will send you more complete information and itinerary and travel details after your final acceptance. Sincerely, randy Martinez, CEO and president of World Airways. Isn’t that exciting? My excuse of not having time or money is no longer relevant. And as I was sharing to Tina last night I’m going home and that’s exciting. My parents, sharing this story, and the turn of events these last two months. And last month we invited my parents for lunch. And because my parents live out of time we could call them and say we want to have lunch with you. But my wife sees her parents every day. They fired questions at her, why are we getting together?
SARA: Have you planned about it?
RICHARD: This is a very fast trip. We are going to be gone for one week. And because world airways is planning the trip, my obligation is to be there for the group and represent the US and Vietnam and the adoptee community. I’ll be able to do some sightseeing but my intention to go is…some people wan to know if I want to go back to my orphanage. That’s not my intention. Just to set foot in the land where I was born is exciting.
SARA: Take a tape deck?
RICHARD: I’ll have a recorder with me. I can tape that and send it to you.
SARA: What did your parents say?
RICHARD: More holding back the tears than anything else. My mother in law was doing great until she looked over at my mom and then she lost it. She has taken an interest in my adoption and this was something exciting for her to hear.
SARA: What do your kids think?
RICHARD: My kids are upset because I’m not taking them. they’re having a hard time understanding this is not a true vacation more than an important diplomatic trip when we’re meeting some important officials to tie relationships between the US and Vietnam. I do want to take them but this is not the right time for them to go. It was asked that no kids are allowed to go. There are go into be too many emotions.
SARA: It’s good they’re excited
RICHARD: I think they will be excited. They can say my dad was adopted, they can go back and visit his country. But they’re more upset at this point because they don’t understand the true effect and intensity. I’m excited and it’s an honor to be hand-picked like this. I don’t take it lightly.
SARA: Know anyone else going?
RICHARD: Based off of the rumors. But there was a news press on the internet where there are a couple names on the report I recognize off of my community, the Vietnamese adoptee network. There is one person I know by name but will meet face to face.
SARA: Anything else to read?
RICHARD: I won’t share my felony charges…(ha ha) No, just show you some pictures.
SARA: Tina, do you want to say anything? Are you going on the trip?
TINA: I am Tina Silver and I am the wife of Richard silver and I have two agendas for going non this strip. One is to go with Rick to experience Vietnam, things he only got to do for two and a half years. To be able to go back and set foot. I’m also a world traveler and I enjoy going to new countries, finding out about their culture. I know some from Rick, but growing up in an American home it’s hard to truly experience the Vietnamese culture.
SARA: Your mother was interested in him. Did you have questions while dating?
TINA: when Rick and I first started dating, raising a family was something people talk about, and after we got married we wanted to look into Rick’s past. Would we find anything about his parents, medical things? Our chances of finding that are slim, but my mom kept pushing and I was in the background going yeah. And he got hooked up into some organizations and we rolled on since then. I’m glad he’s looking into his past to see what it’s all about.
SARA: Do your kids understand your being adopted?
TINA: We have definitely told them that daddy was adopted and where he was adopted from and how much his adoptive parents love him. He is not from them, but he is part of them. We have talked about that. Especially being a biracial couple, myself Caucasian and Rick Vietnamese, they have questions about that. I’m Amerasian and what does that mean? So they’re well-versed in where daddy came from. Our oldest son Cameron is eight and a half and Caleb is 5 ½.
SARA: Anything else?
TINA: Not having anything come to mind. Can you think of anything?
RICHARD: You had asked about how my kids thought about my adoption. They’re really excited, Cameron is really excited when he tells his friends my dad is part of VAN. He asks his friends if they know VAN and he says Vietnamese Adoptee Network. He really likes being a part of it because I’m a part of it. So for that he really carries on that traditional and heritage that he can pick up the essence of what we do with the adoption community. That’s all I have.
TRACK 7 – 4:00
TINA: Somehow adoption came up, he was adopted, so they started talking, Bree hooked him up with another organization and then VAN got started. And it’s actually my friend who gets us involved with the main thing.
RICHARD: I’m not afraid to ask people what their ethnic background is. I asked her you look Vietnamese. And she said yes. Are you by any chance adopted? And I said me too. I’m from Vietnam as well. So we started sharing stories. And she said I just got back from the Baltimore reunion, the 25th anniversary. Had I known that was going to happen I would have gone back. So from that point on I had Bree submit my name to listerserves. To get acquainted. Ever since then it’s been an enjoyable.
SARA: How long ago was this?
RICHARD: Back in 2000.
TINA: Five years ago.
RICHARD: Yes. Because it was in 2001 I went to Seattle for the first conference.
SARA: How did you two meet?
TINA: The church I grew up to in Tigard Ricks’ sister and brother went to church with me. I knew who they were. Rick went to college and he had come up to spend a weekend with them and had gone downtown to a music store. He got talking to all the people there and they said do you want a job? And he said okay. And he went back to his sister’s and said can I live with you for a while. So he came up here. And when I was an exchange student in the Philippines I said I was going to marry a Filipino. Well, I married a Vietnamese, and it was love at first sight, but we’ve been married for ten years. You can have Rick’s story.
RICHARD: Basically I learned not to give my phone number out. In Eugene I had a lot of solicitors and prank calls, so I was always unlisted. So for a few weeks I didn’t give Tina my phone number. She would call and say that’s my prankster friend.
TRACK 8 – 5:57
RICHARD: This is my birth certificate and it’s basically on rice paper, a thinner piece of tissue paper. On this birth certificate about 80% of the kids in orphanages their names were made up. So though I have an name, a birthdate and the most important information, what I’m looking at here is made up. So what I’ve been told is that when I was left on the doorstep at the orphanage, I was left a day or two later. So the sisters at the orphanage gauged my birthdate off of how old I was. So April 25th is when my birthday is dated, but it could be earlier. So this is really interesting that there’s some important information on this birth certificate. For instance, the sister who signed my certificate at the bottom, Ross Maider knows her, her name is Twi. So I’ve been trying to get a hold of her so I can tell her thank you. But the other information is where the orphanage was in Vietnam. The date, who ran it, witnesses to my birth and who I am. It shows here, #393. I don’t know what that means. Whether I’m the 393rd child to go through the orphanage.
SARA: Looks like a copy.
RICHARD: There’s’ still a lot of unanswered questions in this birth certificate. I’ll take a copy and maybe I can get more answers questioned. Or more questions answered. Okay, my parents got a couple more extra applications . No these are passport applications. There’s a lot of correspondence my parents have going back and forth with the department of human resources.
TINA: Now the time seems to be at hand for our getting a little girl.
RICHARD: What’s the date?
TINA: January 8, 1976.
RICHARD: Okay, my parents. After they adopted me, they started considering adopting a Korean girl. And the mother decided to keep her daughter. That’s why we don’t have another girl in the family. Her name would have been Sue Chin. Sue chin Silver. There’s some other cool things my mom kept. She kept a little pamphlet of the most common words I would say in Vietnamese. My original fingerprints. There’s a whole scrapbook of my naturalization and a bunch of certificates and the recognition of me coming to the US and getting my citizenship. That’s pretty exciting. Again they did a lot of correspondence with different organizations to make sure this keeps flowing. Albertina Kerr Holmes was a liaison with my parents. This is basically a bio stating who we are, my father’s writing this, and saying my family is fit to adopt another child. Basically saying why we should be considered to adopt a child. I think that’s about it.
TRACK 9 – 1:02
ROOM TONE
END OF DISC 1
DISC 2
TRACK 1 – 1:16