Love Our Way

Managing a household of eight children is not for the faint-hearted. When you've adopted six children from overseas and succeeded in creating a riotiously happy family of ten, there's a good chance you can handle any challenge life throws at you.

That's what Julia and Barry Rollings thought until they discovered that two of their children had not been willingly given up for adoption in India. Much worse, Akil and Sabila had been stolen from their mother while she slept - and sold by their father. How do you deal with such devastating news? Bow to the advice that 'You adopt the child, not the family'?

Perhaps not tell the children until they are older - or not at all? But Julia Rollings is not one to take the easy road. She makes the courageous decision to reunite Akil and Sabi, 13 and 12, with their birth mother, Sunama, and her family. In Love Our Way Julia shares their moving journey of discovery to India and how it has expanded and enriched her family in more ways than one.

About the Author

Julia Rollings is a writer with extensive personal and community experience in intercountry adoption. Her feature articles have been published in The Canberra Times and Adoption Australia magazine, and she contributed to the anthology Adopting by Jane Turner Goldsmith. She has worked in child welfare, in both a volunteer and professional capacity, for many years. Julia currently works for a community-based child service in Canberra, and is a representative on the National Peak Overseas Adoption Support Group, established by the Attorney General's Department. She and her husband, Barry, have eight children, six of whom were adopted.