Adopting an older child is a completely different experience than adopting an infant, and it comes with its own set of unique challenges. Angelina Jolie has three adopted children, but only middle child Pax, 5 this month, was adopted as an older child; he lived in an orphanage in Vietnam for the first three years of his life. Angelina has shared before some of the funnier parts of helping him adjust, saying when they first adopted him, “he would take five baths a day,” they “had trouble convincing him underwear is not pants” and that he went from being the “shyest” to the “wildest person in the house”.

Unfortunately, not all aspects are as lighthearted, and little Pax is still carrying some emotional scars. Hello! magazine interviewed her about her recent trip to Afghanistan, where she saw children in horrid conditions, and the magazine asked specifically about her own children adapting, being from “similar deprived circumstances.” Angelina answered,

“Children respond to affection quickly when they have been starved of it, so they are very loving soon after coming home. But Pax, for example, still wants to save food. He often puts parts of his dinner away for another time, even though we explain there will be more tomorrow.”

Source: Hello! Magazine Nov 18 print issue
Photo: Flynet