Anna Dombkins

Why did you bring Jemima?

Yeah, I took her because she'd always been a clingy baby, especially to me.

She didn't want to be anywhere without me and if I held another baby, she would object and so I didn't know she was ready and I knew...

If we expanded our family, it had to work for all of us.

So I took her to see, was she ready and how would she respond?

And so her and I went into this baby home that was just the most magical place.

And there was, you know, 50 babies in there and they were so well cared for.

Their processes were amazing.

and we met these two twins shay and charlie and i watched her just toddle around with all these other babies and and it just it changed her in that moment i think and then i held the baby and she didn't object and then when i put this baby down it cried and she said mama pick up baby and so i could see something was shifting in her as well um

What was that like for you?

And so I did a terrible job of protecting my heart and just fell in love with them, knowing it may or may not work out.

But here were two children who really had no other hope for a family.

And so it was definitely worth pursuing.

Yeah, they'd been through a process of just tracking down any other option.

They had an aunt who was a single mum with 15 children of her own.

And so they did contact her and they asked her, can you take these two as well?

And she said, I just can't.

I can't.

I'm struggling to keep my own alive.

I can't take any more.