The special child of a French couple

Cathy Cauchy and her husband (living in the port city of Marseille, France) came together after Cathy broke up with her first marriage. The French woman already had two children, a boy and a girl. However, wanting to create a bond for their new family, Cathy and her husband decided to adopt a child. In 2010, they both went to Vietnam and found the Orphanage of the Binh Thuan Provincial Social Protection Center (now the Binh Thuan Provincial Comprehensive Social Protection Center). Here, they were especially impressed with the boy Nguyen Dinh Dong (born February 4, 2005). Dong had a round face and was quite mischievous and hyperactive.

Dinh Dong as a child (Photo: NVCC).

Feeling an invisible bond with the boy from the first minutes of meeting, Mrs. Cathy and her husband agreed that Dinh Dong would be the piece of the family they were looking for. At that time, because he was still young, Dinh Dong did not know about the fateful trip that would change his life. When the car left the airport, not seeing the nanny but only "two strangers" beside him, the boy cried non-stop. Mrs. Cathy tearfully hugged her son and told herself that she would love and make up for her son a lot. Returning to France, she still carefully preserved the souvenirs that Dinh Dong brought from Vietnam. Among them were souvenir photos taken from when the boy was born until his early years. As someone who always values ​​affection and gratitude, Mrs. Cathy gave her son a new name but did not forget to keep part of his Vietnamese name so that he would always remember his roots. "My son was renamed Matis Ding Dong Cauchy," said Mrs. Cathy.

The Vietnamese boy was adopted and brought to France when he was 5 years old (Photo: NVCC).

In the following days, the boy who was abandoned by his biological mother at birth had a real family. Mrs. Cathy loved Dinh Dong like her own child, without any discrimination. Dinh Dong's French adoptive siblings were also extremely happy to have a younger brother. Over the years, the French couple did not hide the fact that Matis Ding Dong was adopted. Therefore, as he grew up, the Vietnamese boy became more and more curious about his origins. He wanted to know who gave birth to him, what he was like as a child, where he lived, and why he was abandoned. According to the documents that Mrs. Cathy had, Nguyen Dinh Dong was born at 0:30 on February 4, 2005 at Ham Tan District Medical Center, at that time located at 4 Nguyen Hue - Tan An (Binh Thuan). The mother declared her name as Nguyen Thi Thu Huong, residing in KP.2, Lagi town.

Information about the Vietnamese boy is kept by his family (Photo: NVCC).

Dinh Dong was born weighing 4.2 kg and was declared by his mother to be the fourth child in the family. On February 17, 2005, the boy was taken into care at the Tan An Orphanage, a social protection center in Binh Thuan province. However, that information was not enough for Cathy's family to find the biological mother of their Vietnamese son. One time, when the whole family sat down to look at photos of Dinh Dong as a child, they suddenly realized that among dozens of photos, there was one with a series of numbers that looked like a phone number. Cathy's family anxiously called the phone number, hoping that after 10 years, the subscription was still active. Luckily, when they called, they found out that the owner of the phone number was a woman named Nhat. Mrs. Nhat was the person who used to work at the orphanage. Back then, because she had cared for and treated Dinh Dong like her own son for a long time, when she said goodbye to him, Mrs. Nhat couldn't help but miss him. She left her phone number in the hope of one day seeing her beloved boy again. From this chance, the French family began their journey to Vietnam to find their son's birth mother.

The day of returning to Vietnam after 13 years away

In April 2023, Ms. Cathy's family decided to go to Vietnam to meet the nanny. They hired Ms. Nguyen Hai Uyen (in Ho Chi Minh City) as an interpreter. "Although we had made an appointment in advance, when the meeting date was near, Ms. Nhat's phone number suddenly went dead. The French side called but couldn't get through and I couldn't get through either. We didn't understand what was happening and were worried that we wouldn't be able to meet the nanny who had raised the boy in the past," Ms. Hai Uyen said.

Cathy and her husband brought their Vietnamese son (far left) back to Vietnam (Photo: NVCC).

Faced with that situation, Ms. Hai Uyen decided to go to Binh Thuan a day earlier. Because she had asked for Mrs. Nhat's address, Ms. Uyen found her way there herself. When she saw someone coming to her house, Mrs. Nhat cried with joy and said that her phone number was blocked because she had been in Korea visiting her child for too long. She could not remember the phone numbers that had called her, so she was afraid that the appointment would be broken. A day later, Mrs. Nhat was able to meet the boy she had taken care of for the first few years of his life. Although they had been apart for many years and her memories had faded, Dinh Dong still felt a special affection when he met his former nanny. "The boy called Mrs. Nhat 'mom' and kept asking about his past. This meeting even more urged Dinh Dong to find his family," Ms. Uyen recalled. After that, Ms. Cathy's family continued to seek out the former director of the orphanage. The director confirmed that Ms. Nhat had been the nanny who took care of Dinh Dong for a long time. Dinh Dong at that time considered the nanny as his mother, often following her home to sleep, and whenever Ms. Nhat got off work, he wanted to follow her. From the friendly meeting, the French mother always expressed her gratitude to those who took care of her Vietnamese son during his young, helpless years. Through that, she also expressed her desire for individuals and organizations to help find her son's mother. Ms. Cathy shared: "Matis is a sensitive, studious and hard-working person. In particular, he loves his parents, brother and sister very much. The only flaw in Matis's soul is his roots. He wants to find his biological family to have peace of mind."

Dinh Dong is actively learning Vietnamese to help in the process of finding his mother (Photo: NVCC).

The French mother choked up and sent a few words to Matis's birth mother and hoped that she could read it on Dan Tri : "I am always grateful to you for giving birth to Matis. Don't worry, Matis is very happy, we also love him with all our hearts. I know that there must be a reason, some difficulty, for you to not be able to continue raising your child." Sharing about the journey to find the mother "Nguyen Thi Thu Huong" for the Vietnamese boy, Ms. Hai Uyen - who spent the past few months supporting Ms. Cathy - said that they had found some people named Huong and also gave birth to their child that year, but other information did not match. The person in charge of the area "KP.2, Lagi town" at that time also said that this neighborhood was very small and there was no woman with that name. Despite great efforts in searching, Ms. Cathy's family has not had any positive news so far. However, the French woman refused to give up and hoped for a miracle on her journey to find her son's roots.