My name is Thi Duoc, but I also have a nickname of "Loan". I was born in 1965 in Tra On, Tra Vinh Province. Two days after I was born, I was given to my foster parents. Because of this I know nothing about my real father and mother. According to the nurse in the hospital I was born on 26 November 1965. My mother left a letter by my side, saying that she could not keep me with her. At that time, there was a woman whose baby died soon after he was born. The nurse was satisfied to give me to that poor woman.

My foster mother, Thi Doi, did have a tragic destiny. Her husband, a soldier of the ARVN, had been killed at his military camp. Her brother and two of her uncles had also been killed. She was sent to a re-education camp with accusations of having a husband in the ARVN and having an adopted AmerAsian child. My mother would have died, like her brother and uncles, if it weren't for an exchange of prisoners between the two sides.

When I was 10 years old, the local authorities questioned me, saying that I was a child of the enemy, because I didn't look like my foster parents. I love my foster parents very much because they have sacrificed too much for the government of South Vietnam.

When my foster mother was sent to a re-education camp, I went to live with her mother, my foster grandmother. After returning from the camp my foster mother was injured and lost a leg. At the age of 11, I had to go to the paddy field to plant rice. All of my half brothers and sisters were still very young, so I also had to look after them.

I got married for the first time when I was 24. Three months after my first child was born, my husband disappeared. Later on I learned that he had died.

I went to Saigon to look for a job. While working in Saigon, I learned that AmerAsians could apply for a visa to the US, so I went to the American Consulate to get the forms. I filled out the information and sent it to Bangkok. After that I got an LOI, dated October 21, 1998. I had been interviewed and got a rejection letter, saying that I did not have solid proof, and my looks were not that of an authentic AmerAsian.

Disappointed, I asked a Honda driver for hire, to help me find a job. He did and I started working in a noodle shop. I earned 600,000 VND a month. Some months later I met my current husband. He was good hearted and helped me in many ways, so we got married and had a marriage certificate made.

In 2002, I applied again and this time I also put my husband's name on the application. I did not get an interview, but I did get another rejection letter.

Today I earn a living by selling coffee on the street. At most I can earn 40,000 VND a day.

I am eager to go to America so that I can start looking for my father. I also would like the American Consulate to send an investigating team to my foster mother's homeland to find out the truth about myself and my foster parents. I can not live on like this, I am sure.

The hardest things about being an AmerAsian are being rejected by the Vietnamese people and the American Officials at the Consulate. Having no relatives, no one I can rely on.

I have never applied with a fake name or a fake husband.