‘I was just babysitting her for you – in the womb’

After we left the theatre, I went to the toilet and came back into the room and Serina was taking photos of Pearl. And she goes, “Oh, my sister! I’m so sorry! Is it okay if I take photos?” It was that respect she has for the process. “Don’t you ever ask me again,” I told her. “Take as many as you want.” When I went back to Melbourne for the season, I felt guilty taking Pearl away from Serina, but she always says the same thing: “I was just babysitting her for you – in the womb.”

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Serina: My family is from Darnley Island, the far outer east of the Torres Strait. It is different there, open and free; you can run around naked and no one really cares. There’s no sense of time. It’s tropical. Swimming. Fishing. Different to Cairns, where my little brother Kailu met Cayla. I used to wake up early in the morning and see her sneaking out of our house, wondering where this chick was coming from.

One weekend, she and my brother went out and she came into my room, drunk, and sat on my bed thinking it was the toilet. I woke up and startled her, and she bounced off and landed on the floor. In the morning she was like, “My back is hurting, and my bum, and I don’t know why.” And I was like, “I’ve got a funny story about that.” From then on, we just clicked.

I knew she was the one for my brother in the way he looked and acted. He was a reckless fella, a rough-head, but he became more mature, as if he knew he had a future. When Cayla told me about her trouble having kids, I said I would be there to help them out.

They had a barbecue last year, and it was only a couple of days beforehand that I knew I was pregnant. I didn’t know if I wanted to have it, but then I remembered what I’d told Kailu and Cayla and I felt kind of selfish. Cayla saw me looking tired and joked that I might be pregnant. I was like, “Well, I am pregnant and we need to talk.”

“Island adoption is a big thing in our culture – it’s like you’re giving a part of yourself.”

Serina George

Why make the gesture? I love to help others. I’ve done this before, too. I had a daughter, Kelsey, and gave her to my aunty because my aunty helped raise me and had always wanted a girl. Kelsey’s three now and a princess. Island adoption is a big thing in our culture – it’s like you’re giving a part of yourself. But you have to be careful. No one is meant to speak about it, ever, until the adoptive parents want to tell the child.

Otherwise, it’s taken to the grave because if someone does talk about it without permission, it can cause a big argument and heartbreak. But Pearl will learn where she came from. Cayla wants her to have an understanding of what Aunty Serina did so that they could be a family.

I had to get myself mentally ready for the birth, and I did. My mind was in the right place. I was crying, but happy for them. I think Cayla felt a bit judged in hospital, as if she had to be the best she could be because she hadn’t gone through labour. Any time the doctors and nurses spoke to me, I’d have to point them away: “She’s the mother. Pearl’s her baby.”

Pearl has great parents. Kailu cries when he’s away from her and Cayla is supermum. Saying goodbye when they took Pearl to Melbourne was fine. I wasn’t happy and I wasn’t sad. It was easy because she was going to the right place, with the right people. When I see her now it just feels as if I’m babysitting for my brother and sister-in-law, like I’m visiting my happy little niece.

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