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As for Dad, because Vietnamese regulations don't allow unmarried couples to co-adopt, Jolie adopted Pax as a single parent while Pitt remained in L.A., where he is filming The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. "He has specific days on the movie that couldn't be changed or production would run over," says his rep. But Jolie still made sure to bring a welcoming committee: Joined by Maddox and Zahara – Shiloh has been on the Button set every day with her father – the new mom used her first few days with Pax to begin gently bonding with him and to allow her other kids to do the same. "We are slowly beginning to build his trust and bond," Jolie says, "but it will feel complete only when we are all together."
One immediate challenge: the language barrier. Pax, who until now has only known life inside the simply appointed Tam Binh Orphan Center on the outskirts of Ho Chi Minh City, speaks only Vietnamese, while Jolie has learned a few phrases in his native tongue. Dr. Jane Aronson, a Manhattan pediatrician and international adoption expert who became a friend of Jolie's following Zahara's adoption, notes that Pax's years in an orphanage may initially slow his language abilities and that learning English will likely take several months.
