Angelina, Pax homeward bound

Angelina, Pax Homeward Bound [E! Online]

One week, one passport stamp, one hungry media and one successful adoption after arriving in Vietnam, Angelina Jolie is heading home.

In tow is the Oscar-winning actor's newest addition to her multicultural brood, three-year-old son Pax Thien Jolie, along with brother Maddox and, according to People, heretofore unseen sister Zahara.

The foursome took off in a private Gulfstream jet from Hanoi's Noi Bai airport early Wednesday, accompanied by a small entourage of just a few of Jolie's assistants. And, it could be said, the anticipation of an entirely different country.

Jolie arrived in Vietnam last Wednesday to pick up the newest member of her ever-expanding brood and has been taking great pains, to great effect, to keep the boy out of the sights of the ever-present paparazzi. In fact, the only images seen of the boy up until his departure from the country were his passport photo and a shot of him in the orphanage in his pre-adoption days.

Though all that's about to change.

Like sister Shiloh before him, Pax is set to make his photogenic debut in the pages of People magazine, gracing the Friday cover with Jolie and the spread inside with siblings Maddox and Zahara. Shiloh, meanwhile, won't join in on the snap-happy family fun, as the photos were taken in Vietnam while the 10-month-old remained in Los Angeles with papa Brad Pitt.

While the brood, which was previously bestowed the title of People's Most Beautiful Family, will unite later today when the foursome touches down in California, Jolie told the magazine it may take longer before the transition to family-unit is complete.

"It will take him a while to realize he has a family and that his new life is permanent and that it won't keep changing," she said. "We are slowly beginning to build his trust and bond, but it will feel complete only when we are all together."

"You can imagine what courage it takes to be in all new surroundings, with new people and a new language. He is very strong."

On Thursday, the duo made their way to the Tam Binh orphanage, Pax's home since he was found abandoned outside a Ho Chi Minh City hospital just after his birth, where Jolie took custody of the boy. From there, the united family headed off to the Department of Justice, where they took part in an official adoption ceremony in which guardianship of Pax was formally handed over to Jolie.

The foursome miraculously managed to keep a low profile in their first—and only—weekend in the country, so much so that the media failed to even realize Zahara was along for the ride. The family holed up in their hotel room with a batch of brand-new toys, primed for some one-on-one bonding. It apparently worked.

When the fam checked out of their Ho Chi Minh City hotel on Monday morning, several onlookers reported that the brothers were communicating very animatedly through sign language: While Maddox is obviously as well versed as a five-year-old can be in English, Pax knows, expectedly so, only Vietnamese.

From there, the brood headed over to Hanoi for Jolie to finalize the adoption process, granting the U.S. Embassy one final once-over of the adoption paperwork.

Jolie first filed for adoption last summer through the U.S.-based agency Adoptions from the Heart. The 31-year-old filed as a single mother in accordance with the Vietnamese government's policy prohibiting unmarried couples from adopting, but it's expected, as he did with Maddox and Zahara, that Pitt will seek to amend his formal parental status when Pax returns to the U.S.

Which should be any hour now.

Jolie was prohibited from taking Pax out of the country until the embassy issued him a visa and U.S. passport. She managed to pick up both on Tuesday, clearing the way for the trio's homeward-bound status early this morning.

Jolie and Pitt first visited Vietnam during the Thanksgiving holiday, when they paid a surprise visit to the Tam Binh orphanage and selected young Pham Quang Sang, whom they rechristened Pax Thien, Latin and Vietnamese for "Peaceful Sky," as their fourth child.

While the Jolie-Pitt brood has set up camp in New Orleans, it's expected that Pax's first stop in the U.S. will be Los Angeles, where Pitt has been shooting his latest film, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, and caring for 10-month-old daughter Shiloh.