Visiting Danang Hospital

Yesterday, Mai Anh, Nghin and the three kids all drove from Danang to Tam Thanh District to obtain more paperwork for Thien Nhan's passport application. As those of you with kids can imagine, a three-hour drive (in each direction) with three boys aged eight, three and 20 months involved a LOT of noise.

On the way, the family stopped off at the Danang Hospital and met some of the doctors who had tended to Thien Nhan when he'd been brought in as a newborn, shortly after the dog attack. One doctor, Dr. Quoc Huynh Hieu, described the traditional Vietnamese Naming Ceremony that staff and local monks had organized when Thien Nhan was one month old. The hospital has kept an album of photos recording this event.

Dr. Hieu said that: "We came up with that name [which means 'Good Person'] so that Thien Nhan would be a good-natured person even though his start in life was so difficult".