Where does the time go? It seems like just yesterday that Angie adopted him, and now Pax Thien Jolie-Pitt is 6 years old! In the two and a half years he’s been a member of the Jolie-Pitt family, Pax has experienced quite a bit. For one thing, the lucky little guy has already been to several countries! France, the Czech Republic, Kenya, Germany, and, of course, the United States are just a few of the countries he has visited! To see pictures of Pax from over the past two and a half years and read more about the adventures he’s had with his family, click to read more!

In March 2007,  it was announced that Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt were adopting their fourth child, a little boy from Vietnam. Unlike their previous two adoptions, this time they were adopting an older child. A few weeks after the announcement that the Jolie-Pitts were adopting, Jolie-Pitt child number 4 offically joined the family. The 3-year-old boy, orginally named Pham Quang Sang, was named Pax Thien Jolie (Vietnamese law makes it difficult for unmarried couples to adopt, so Angie adopted as single parent. Hence the reason his last name was initally Jolie and not Jolie-Pitt). Pax means “peace” or “peaceful” in Latin, and Thien means “sky” or “heaven” in Vietnamese, so Pax’s full name literally means “peacful sky” or “peaceful heaven”. Maddox and Zahara were in Vietnam with Angie to meet their new brother (Shiloh, who was 10 months old at the time, was in LA with Brad, who couldn’t go to Vietnam due to the fact that he was filming The Curious Case of Benjamin Button at the time. Shi even ended up with a cameo in the movie!). Shortly after Angie, Maddox, Pax, and Zahara arrived back in LA, Pax’s last name was legally changed to Jolie-Pitt.

A few months after Pax’s adoption, Angie made the press rounds for A Mighty Heart, and in her interviews, told us a little bit more about Pax. She revealed that he was, at the time “the wildest one in the house”. She also shared that Pax has his little sister Shiloh to at least partially thank for his adoption. She explained that “something changed with Shiloh. Suddenly there was someone in the house who looked like mommy and daddy.” She went on to say that they decided the other kids might benefit from having someone else of their race in the house to relate to. Perhaps most touching of all, Angelina revealed where Pax’s name came from. While she did not say how she and Brad picked “Thien”, she shared that, when she was pregnant with Shiloh, her mother Marcheline gave her and Brad a list of name suggestions….one of which was Pax. So, even though Marcheline died a few months prior to Pax’s adoption, Pax will always have a very special connection to his grandmother. 🙂

In July of 2008, Pax experienced welcoming new siblings for the first time. Angelina gave birth to twins Knox Leon and Vivienne Marcheline on July 12th at the Foundation Lenval Hospital in Nice, France. A few months after the twins’ birth, Angelina revealed that Pax and his other siblings had taken well to the new additions, even changing diapers on occasion! They also, she said, referred to the twins as “their babies”.

Now Pax is a very grown-up six-year old boy. He has certainly changed a lot since he first joined the family. Up next for the little guy? Most likely more siblings, for one. Angie and Brad have both said that they want more children, and that they want to adopt again! 🙂 Happy birthday, Pax! 🙂