Today’s guest is Sarah Salmon. She’s an Australian writer who lived in Asia for fifteen years, during which time she and her husband adopted two children – two girls – from Cambodia. Her memoir is entitled The Red Thread and it chronicles her struggle to complete her family while living in India. A psychic once told Sarah that she’d have ‘a dark-skinned child, not by the man you marry.’ Adoption was always going to be her path. In today’s episode, we talk a lot about the adoption process – and you’ll hear about the many hurdles she faced – and how she overcame them.  

Early on in the book, Sarah writes that: ‘Orphanage babies don’t cry. There is no point in crying; they know no one will come for them, so they shut down… It’s the loudest silence I’ve ever heard.’ We speak about what it was like walking into an orphanage for the first time.  

We also talk about the shocking corruption that exists in Cambodia and how she navigated this – and the sickening fact that at least a third of Cambodian prostitutes are children and girls as young as five are sold into prostitution in Cambodia for less than one hundred dollars. I know this is uncomfortable to hear, but we need more awareness around this shocking situation.  

More than anything, I hope this episode will remind you that we all have our own unique path to motherhood – and rarely is it without twists and turns.  

You can purchase The Red Thread here. 

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