Barry and Julia Rollings wouldn’t have given the internet news item a second glance had it not been from Chennai. It was from here that the Australian couple had adopted their children, Akil and Sabila, eight years ago. But on that day in March 2006, the couple froze as they looked at their computer screen. The report was about a woman’s complaint against an adoption racket in Chennai and the agency from where they got Akil and Sabila was among the suspects.

After the initial shock, the Rollings knew they had to plan carefully. The couple and their eight children—apart from their two biological daughters, the Rollings had adopted a son each from South Korea and Taiwan, two from Nagpur and then Akil and Sabila—had just come back to Canberra from a vacation in India and now they would have to go back to trace Akil and Sabila’s biological parents. It was a journey that would throw up an extraordinary story of two families and their 16 members, of painful separation and a joyous reunion.

The beginning

It all began in 1996 when the Rollings—Barry is a sports journalist and Julia a social worker—decided to adopt a pair of siblings from India

“After our two daughters were born, we decided that we should try and help children in other parts of the world who would otherwise be left uncared for in their orphanages,” said Julia, looking perfectly content with her children on a recent rainy day in Chennai.

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