Mother Courage

Mrs Sarah Salmon (1993, Dawkins ) has turned her battle with the adoption bureaucracy in Cambodia, India and Australia into a heartwarming memoir for the sake of her daughters Sophea (Year 9) and Jasmine (Year 7) and other families walking the same path.

“A child born to another woman calls me mommy. The magnitude of that tragedy and the depth of that privilege are not lost on me.” – Joy Landers. So begins The Red Thread, An Adoption Memoir, the very honest book Mrs Sarah Salmon released in July, to tell the story of her and her husband Ben’s quest to adopt two daughters from Cambodia, while living as expats in Bangalore, India.

Sarah’s international-mindedness began as a Year 10 student when she travelled to Germany for two and a half months to live with a host family and develop her language skills. “I wasn’t even that keen on German, but I chose it as an elective because I loved Frau Richardson!” she says.

By age 25, the travel bug was firmly installed, and Sarah seized the chance to follow her then-boyfriend Ben to Seoul, South Korea. What ensued was 15 years of life in Asia, including India, where Ben set up a property development company - a significant adjustment at the best of times. But in Sarah’s case, the challenges were exacerbated by her struggle to conceive. Unwilling to pursue uncertain fertility treatments when there are so many children in need of a safe and loving family, Sarah and Ben decided to adopt.

Sarah describes the arrival of their first daughter Sophea from Cambodia as a fairytale, despite the red tape involved. But by the time they had found a Cambodian sister for Sophea, the rules and issues surrounding international adoption had changed and the thick layers of bureaucracy across Cambodia, India and Australia threatened to halt their plans.

For months, Jasmine was stuck in a shambling, unhygienic orphanage without access to adequate food or medical treatment, while Sarah and Ben refused to give up their battle to have her released into their care. The title of The Red Thread comes from the Buddhist string bracelet Jasmine had around her wrist when she, Sarah and Ben first met. A monk later tied versions of the same bracelet around their own wrists as a symbol of good luck, courage and bravery. The red threads came to represent the hope and unity of the soon-to-be family of four, during the extended fight to bring Jasmine

The Salmons have now been back in Australia for 6 years and Sophea and Jasmine are well-established members of the Wenona student community, with rich social and extracurricular lives. They return to Cambodia regularly, are learning to speak Khmer, and the Salmons celebrate all the Cambodian holidays and cultural celebrations.

Sarah remains a passionate supporter of all those who seek to provide loving, stable homes for overseas children without safe families of their own. And her heart breaks for those parents and children who never get to become a family, due to the increasingly rigid rules and regulations. “Deborra-Lee Furness, (the founder of Adopt Change and on the Board of Orphans Worldwide Australia) has done a wonderful job in this space, but it remains the case that many children whose lives could be saved by inter-country adoption still languish in orphanages.”

In advocating for inter-racial adoption, Sarah has written opinion pieces for the Nine and Murdoch press, receiving her fair share of criticism online. But she says she will never back away from opportunities to spread understanding about the benefits of international adoption for both children and parents, as she and Ben watch the lives of their beloved Sophea and Jasmine continue to happily unfold.

The Red Thread: An Adoption Memoir is available from most online booksellers in Australia.