Signal Mountain's Elizabeth Sasse, who was adopted by Susan and Jim Sasse of Signal Mountain as a baby, went on an adventure to Vietnam to try to find her birth family.
Her mother gives this report of what happened:
She and her friend found the village Liz was from (don't know how) and they were planning on just seeing it and walking around. She said some guys invited them for beers "since they don't see many foreigners around there." The guys heard her story and made a bunch of phone calls and before she knew it they were surrounding by a throng of people!
She met her dad, Dao, her brother Thrang, who has 3 kids, and her sister Van, who has 2 kids!! She also met her grandmom and pa.
None of them speak English but they got the village English teacher who has been translating all this!
It is so sweet, the Dad and sibs said they knew she was in America and have been watching for her on TV!! They told her that her birth mom died of heart problems and the dad decided since she was so young he could not care for her and put her up for adoption. They pulled out the photo album that we had sent thru the adoption process of all of us here in TN so they are the real people!
Liz said they are not dirt poor and want to give her money for Tet and are preparing presents for her to bring back! They want her to come visit twice a year!! (right).
She said they had been eating and drinking together all day and the whole village was there!! She said it was overwhelming but a very happy time for her.
They had insisted that Liz spend the night with them and when she was ready to leave "it took a long time to say goodbye!" They gave her a jacket and whole new outfit (haven't seen that yet) and several bags of food and candy. They also gave her $50 which is a lot of Dong! They said that she looked like her birth mother and they were upset that she had a tan, as Vietnamese ladies put a lot of effort into staying as light as possible.
Her mother also gave this background on Elizabeth:
In 1991 Dick and Cheryl Graham decided that it was time to try to see if Americans could adopt from Vietnam. Dick made three trips over and although they were very cordial, since we had no embassy in Vietnam at the time it appeared impossible. We told Dick we would be his "guinea pigs" and see if he could do it. After the third trip he said it just won't work and we took all the money we had saved for the trip and adoption and took John, then five years old to Israel for a nice trip. The day we got back Dick called, "I did it!! I have you a little girl in Vietnam!!" We were in shock! That was March 1992 and in September we traveled, with Dick and three other families. We got our little girl, Le Thi Ai, who was three years old and terrified! We processed papers for a week in Hanoi and then went to Bangkok to the American Embassy. Since we were the first group of families with adoptees since the Vietnamese War they were shocked and flabbergasted and had no idea what do with us. Dick Graham spent a week pleading our case, and since the head guy at the embassy immigration desk was gone, they finally relented and stamped our papers! We made it the rest of the way home with no paperwork issues. I do remember Liz being scared to death and hanging around my neck for the 24 hour trip and me pleading with her just to sit in her $2,000 airplane seat for a few minutes! Since then The Grahams have helped over a hundred families adopt from Vietnam and China. We are so grateful. Obviously, Liz grew into a beautiful young lady and went to Chattanooga Christian and graduated Cum Laude from UTC in Business, She is now 25 and a very brave young woman.