Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt: Lucky Seven?

December 5, 2011:  Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie want to adopt another child.

The couple – who currently have biological kids Shiloh, five, and three-year-old twins Knox and Vivienne and adopted trio Maddox, 10, Pax, seven, and six-year-old Zahara – reportedly promised their adopted daughter they would take on the care of another youngster from Ethiopia, the poverty-stricken African nation where she was born.

A source said: “They are really excited about it. Brad and Angie made a promise to Zahara years ago that they would adopt another child from the region so she could have a sibling to relate to.”

The couple are also said to believe having seven kids will bring them more “luck and happiness”.

The source added to the Daily Star newspaper: “Also, seven has always been Brad’s lucky number. He and Angelina think it would bring them luck and happiness.”

Brad has previously admitted he always wanted to raise a large family.

He has said: “I know it seems extreme from the outside, but I’ve always kind of operated this way. When I know, I know, and why mess around?

“I had a friend who had a big family when I was a kid. I just loved the chaos around the breakfast table and the fighting and the ribbing, and the mom making pancakes for everyone or the dad making pancakes. And I just decided then if I was ever going to do it – this left some indelible mark on me – if I was ever going to do it, that’s the way I was going to do it.”

Brad Pitt: “Adoption Saved My Daughter”

Brad Pitt is convinced his eldest daughter with Angelina Jolie would certainly have died if she had not been adopted from Africa by the Hollywood couple.

The actor and his partner are parents to six children – three biological kids and three who were adopted from various countries around the world.

The couple adopted Zahara, now six, from an orphanage in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia in 2005 when she was just six months old, and Pitt is convinced the youngster would not have survived if they had not taken her in.

Pitt explained: “I have seen children suffer far beyond what we experience in America – like our oldest daughter. I know she would not be alive (if she had not been adopted). I know what care was available to her, and it was nil. I cannot imagine life without her.”

Angelina Jolie’s Adoptions

On March 10, 2002, Angelina Jolie adopted her first child, seven-month-old Maddox Chivan.  He was born on August 5, 2001 as Rath Vibol in Cambodia, and he initially lived in a local orphanage in Battambang. Jolie decided to apply for adoption after she had visited Cambodia twice, while filming Tomb Raider and on a UNHCR field trip in 2001. After her divorce from her second husband, Billy Bob Thornton, Jolie received sole custody of Maddox. Like Jolie’s other children, Maddox has gained considerable celebrity and appears regularly in the tabloid media.

Jolie adopted a six-month-old girl from Ethiopia, Zahara Marley, on July 6, 2005. Zahara was born on January 8, 2005. She was originally named Yemsrach by her mother, and was later given the legal name Tena Adam at an orphanage. Jolie adopted her from Wide Horizons For Children orphanage in Addis Ababa. Shortly after they returned to the United States, Zahara was hospitalized for dehydration and malnutrition. In 2007, media outlets reported Zahara’s biological mother, Mentewabe Dawit, was still alive and wanted her daughter back, but she later denied these reports, saying she thought Zahara was “very fortunate” to be adopted by Jolie.

Brad Pitt was reportedly present when Jolie signed the adoption papers and collected her daughter; later Jolie indicated that she and Pitt made the decision to adopt Zahara together. On January 19, 2006, a judge in California approved Pitt’s request to legally adopt Jolie’s two children. Their surnames were formally changed to “Jolie-Pitt”.

Jolie gave birth to a daughter, Shiloh Nouvel, in Swakopmund, Namibia, by a scheduled caesarean section, on May 27, 2006. Pitt confirmed that their newly-born daughter would have a Namibian passport, and Jolie decided to sell the first pictures of Shiloh through the distributor Getty Images herself, rather than allowing paparazzi to make these valuable photographs. People paid more than $4.1 million for the North American rights, while British magazine Hello! obtained the international rights for roughly $3.5 million. All profits were donated to an undisclosed charity by Jolie and Pitt. Madame Tussauds in New York unveiled a wax figure of two-month-old Shiloh; it was the first infant re-created in wax by Madame Tussauds.

On March 15, 2007, Jolie adopted a three-year-old boy from Vietnam, Pax Thien, who was born on November 29, 2003 and abandoned at birth at a local hospital, where he was initially named Pham Quang Sang. Jolie adopted the boy from the Tam Binh orphanage in Ho Chi Minh City. She revealed that his first name, Pax, was suggested by her mother before her death.

Following months of tabloid speculation, Jolie confirmed she was expecting twins at the 2008 Cannes Film Festival. She gave birth to a boy, Knox Léon, and a girl, Vivienne Marcheline, by caesarean section at the Lenval hospital in Nice, France, on July 12, 2008. The rights for the first images of Knox and Vivienne were jointly sold to People and Hello! for $14 million—the most expensive celebrity pictures ever taken. The money went to the Jolie/Pitt Foundation.

About Dr. Federici, Angelina Jolie’s Adoption Consultant

Dr. Ron Federici is an expert in the neuropsychiatric evaluation of internationally adopted children. He has been involved in lobbying in the USA to improve policies and procedures for international adoptions and is actively involved in humanitarian aid programs seeking to address the child welfare crisis in Romania. He is the father of seven adopted children from Eastern Europe.