Vincent Dowling

I feel very lucky that al- although, you know, I was separated from my mother, and as it turned out then brothers, sisters on my mother and my father's side, it's turned out to be great.

Suddenly I went from having one mom and dad to having two mom and dads.

And when I went then to the Palestinian refugee camps, I remember the first time they brought me in, we had to be sneaked in to their place, uh, to a refugee camp near Hebron.

But as soon as I did get the letter, I thought, "Oh yeah, I'm definitely gonna respond to this letter," and, you know, it was a very pleasant surprise, I suppose, to get a letter from your mother saying, "Yeah, I'm here and I want to make contact." And then we exchanged letters and decided to meet, and we got on like a house on fire.

And, uh, so it, to me, and I always am very conscious of saying this because I know for an awful lot of people, adoption, mother and baby institutions were not a good story, right? And terrible things happened to people, uh, abuse.

So I, I, I feel very lucky that al- although, you know, I was separated from my mother, and as it turned out then, brothers, sisters, on my mother and my father's side, it's turned out to be great.

Suddenly I went from having one mom and dad to having two mom and dads, and from one brother to, uh, two brothers on, on m- on another family, and three sisters in another family.

[laughs] Because shortly after my mother found me, then my biological fa- father became aware, and then I also came into contact with him and sisters, and they are all now part of a big extended family.