Most people just buy a T-shirt

As some comedian once said, when most people go to a foreign country on vacation, they bring home a souvenir. Angelina Jolie brings home a child.

And it looks like she did it again.

This time, it's a Vietnamese boy, and I suppose in a way that hits close to home, seeing as how once upon a time I was a Vietnamese orphan myself.

Funny thing, though.

I'm sure between Ms. Jolie and her partner, Brad Pitt, this little boy will have a wonderful life, filled with all the best of the material world and everything fame has to offer. And certainly a much better life than he might otherwise have had. I don't know them, of course, but I'd like to give them the benefit of the doubt and assume they're good parents on top of all that.

I don't doubt there are people out there who will at least joke that it would be nice to be adopted by celebrities. Some might even mean it.

But I won't. I don't.

Don't get me wrong. God bless Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt for their love and generosity.

But the simple matter is, from where I'm sitting, I did better than that little tyke, though I wish him all the best and I'm quite sure he'll never have to choose between paying the credit-card bill or the mortgage on time. That's right, I'll say it again: I did better.

When a couple take you into their home, into their lives, when you have nothing, no name, no life, no possessions, it's not money or fame that matter. It's love. Patience. Understanding. And more love.

And take my word for it, people, in that race, Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt ain't got nothing on Jerry and Liz Strauss.

There'll be plenty of people jealous of that little Vietnamese boy. What he will probably never know is that he ought to be jealous of me.

(Aside, here's a faint hope that, among all the paperwork they have to do, Ms. Jolie and Mr. Pitt write a check to HALO, Help and Loving Orphans. It's the organization run by Betty Tisdale, the woman who helped found the Babylift, the program that brought me here. So if you or your people are reading this by some chance, do it. It'll make you feel good. And it'll help even more children.)