Suanne Prager

Story :I was born in Saigon in 1971. I was given up for overseas adoption by my birth mother in April 1975. My Australian adoptive parents had been in the process of adopting me for a year, and were meant to travel to VN to collect me. However, in April 1975 the Australian government informed my parents that it was now too dangerous for them to travel to VN and did they want me to come to Australia on Operation Babylift. Of course they said yes, and I travelled to Aust on the 2nd and last Australian Operation Babylift flight, on 18-4-75. I arrived in Melbourne and remained in Fairfield Infectious Diseases Hospital for a month before I was united with my Adelaide family.

I grew up in Adelaide, South Australia. I also lived in Germany twice as a child because of my father’s work. I had a fantastic childhood, I was adopted by a loving middle class family and was given so many opportunities to develop to the best of my ability. I grew up with a fierce desire to search for my birth family. My Australian family was always very supportive and understanding of my interest in searching about my past. I made my first attempt to search when I was 16yrs old. My mum took me to the Red Cross in Adelaide however they didn’t know how to help me at that time. This first attempt put me off searching. It seemed hopeless.

However, this was well before the internet, which helped me immensely when I began searching the 2nd time. In 2004 I typed the words “adopted vietnamese” into google and found all these fantastic Vietnamese Adoptee support groups and websites online, such as Operation Reunite. Thanks to these websites I found out about the VN Motherland Tour, and went on the tour in 2007. I promised everyone I wasn’t going to try searching on that trip, that I would just get to know my homeland. After visiting the church that ran my orphanage in Saigon, I decided to search further on that tour. I decided I’m not wealthy, who knew when I could get back to HCM so I went for it! And I am so grateful that I did.

My birth mother gave me up to the Priest of her Catholic Church. ie Fr Olivier. Fr Olivier promised her that I would go overseas for adoption and that he would save my life by doing so. My mother had me to an American Serviceman and her family were pressuring her to give me up in April 75. My family had heard rumours that when the Viet Cong won the war they would harm children born to Americans and American sympathisers. My mother gave me up reluctantly in April 75, I was 3yrs old. This must have been terribly hard for her to do. She says on the day she handed me over to Fr Olivier at the church I screamed and screamed “no, take me home!”

How I found my mother: Firstly, I was lucky because the VN name that I came to Australia with was my real VN name, it hadn’t been made up somewhere along the line to process me for adoption. Which did happen, for important reasons ie governments like the Australian govt couldn’t process children for adoption without a name, if the child didn’t have one. Also, my mother gave me up to Fr Olivier, who ran a couple of orphanages in Saigon and perhaps elsewhere in the country. Although the orphange he ran ceased to exist in 1975, the Catholic Church and Seminary that ran it still stand and operate today ie Feb 2010. SO, I went back to this Catholic Church twice seeking more info. On the 3rd visit an elderly priest at the attached Seminary mentioned that if I had been baptised I may have a baptism record with helpful info on it. Miraculously my mother had had me baptised and after MUCH BEGGING AND PLEADING of the record officer at the Church, my baptism record was found. The first time I asked him, he said I didn’t exist no record had been found.In the end, this precious document had my mother’s name on it, my Aunt’s name and the address we lived at in 1974. The address was just down the road from the church.

I went to this address with my helpers/interpreters not knowing what to expect. I prepared myself for the fact that the buliding may not remain etc. Amazingly, and I have to say again miraculously… I have Aunts and cousing still at that address as I write this in Feb 2010. My cousin rang my mother at work, and she came to meet us within 1/2hr. It was just amazing and I am so thankful for that day and the outcome. My mother looked at my ears, she had had them pierced. She looked for the scar under my left eye, only a mum would know to do that! And she just embraced me. She cried, and said she thought I’d forgotten her. She apologised over and over again about why she’d given me up. My mother had 5 children with a VN husband, and I was her 6th born to an American serviceman. My mother had worked at his base. She told me his name, and that he knew about my conception but had left VN in a rush with his troops. She hadn’t heard from him since. I do know that he was married and had 2 daughters in America. I am still searching for him. Even if I never find him I have so much peace now, in knowing my birth mother and my 4 remaining siblings, one is sadly deceased. I visited my birth mother in 2008 with my adoptive mum, dad and one of my siblings. I remain in contact with my mother and always will. Its now all roses there will always be various issues. But that is family…

Thank you for reading my story.

Kind regards,

Suanne Ha Thi Minh Trang