Thirteen years since their first arrival in Vietnam, a couple from Ireland has now returned for a mission to help their adopted Vietnamese daughter search for her biological parents.

David and Suzanne Doran had their first child in 2001, and later became enthralled by the idea of adopting children.

They started attending adoption conferences, meeting with Irish families that had successfully adopted children from Vietnam, and completing all the paperwork for the major decision.

But it was not until four years later that the good news arrived: a Vietnamese infant who had been abandoned by her own mother after birth was a perfect match.

The baby girl, named Van, had been taken in by the Child Welfare and Protection Center of Go Vap District in Ho Chi Minh City after efforts to find her birth mother were in vain.

At six months old, Van was brought onto an Ireland-bound flight with her new parents and became an Irish citizen.

Years later, the family would welcome their youngest member, Thien, a Thai ethnic girl from the northern Vietnamese province of Lang Son.

“We knew we could love these children as our own, which we do,” Suzanne said.

“We just wanted to love them and take care of them and make sure they grow up [to become] happy and responsible adults,” she added.

Suzanne would teach herself how to wear ao dai, a traditional Vietnamese gown, which she would don to accompany her adoptive daughters to events organized by the Vietnamese community in Ireland.

She also learnt to cook Vietnamese dishes at home so that the girls would know the taste of food from their birth country.

Suzanne even made the effort to the take her adopted daughters to Vietnamese classes for them to learn their mother tongue.

Van (R) plays with her younger sister Thien as they visit the Child Welfare and Protection Center of Go Vap District in Ho Chi Minh City. Photo: Tuoi Tre

Inside their house, music CDs, film DVDs, and picture books about Vietnam could be found everywhere as a reminder of the family’s strong connection to the Southeast Asian country.

By the age of 13, Van’s awareness of her Vietnamese roots had grown big enough so she finally asked to know her ‘real’ mother.

“We would find it a very positive thing that [our Vietnam-born daughters] wanted to know where they came from,” Suzanne said.

“Their mother and family are a part of them, and they're also a part of their mother and family. That’s all part of their story,” she said.

The family has since visited Thien’s hometown in Lang Son Province and the orphanage in Ho Chi Minh City where Van was raised as an infant, activities that bonded them together more strongly than ever before.

Suzanne said it would be up to her kids to decide whether they wanted to live in Vietnam when they grow up, and that her job was only to help them approach the story of their life with happiness.

Suzanne Doran (C) shows her adoptive daughter photos taken of her as a kid during their visit to the Child Welfare and Protection Center of Go Vap District in Ho Chi Minh City. Photo: Tuoi Tre

As she sat down for a conversation with Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper at the Go Vap orphanage on an early July day, Van would give her mother hugs and kisses from time to time as if she understood the sacrifices her mother had made to raise her and her younger sister.

When asked whether she wanted to see her biological mother again, Van said she had always been aware of her Vietnamese origin, a fact that is respected by all members of the family.

“So I always want to see my biological parents to know where I come from, whether I have any siblings, and how my birth mother is doing,” Van said.

The 13-year-old girl said the visit to the orphanage where she once lived made her feel like she was already home and realize how lucky she was compared to other kids.

“I don’t know how I can share my luck with other kids,” she said.

Irish couple Suzanne and David Doran take their three daughters to visit the Child Welfare and Protection Center of Go Vap District in Ho Chi Minh City. Photo: Tuoi Tre

On their journey to find Van’s biological parents continues, Suzanne said accompanying the girl was the least she and her husband could do to help their daughter.

“I know life is not a fairy tale that always ends happily ever after, and Van’s story is not that of a princess,” she said.

“I believe that a person, no matter where they grow up, should know their roots and where they come from so that they can know what to do, where to be and in which direction to head for in life,” said David Doran, the girl’s father.

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