June Collins is a woman of action – her life is filled with endless stories.
June’s early life as a dancer took her all around the world.
The first place she visited was the Philippines and the trip opened her eyes to a reality she had never seen.
“I was so shocked because I’d never been out of Australia and I hadn’t seen this terrible poverty before,” June said.
“One day, I’m going to take one of these children off the street,” she promised.
June was determined to help needy children find the home they deserve.
“I started doing volunteer work with Heal the Children. It is a wonderful program, and I can’t speak highly enough of them,” she said.
“I learned about adoption from different countries, and I found out that 13 was the cut-off age. Older adoptions had up to 60% disruption, so the agencies would bring them to me, until they found them new homes.”
“Plus, I was taking Heal the Children sick kids who needed to be treated,” June added.
“I’ve always had a house full of kids.”
June wanted to adopt a child of her own. She lived in America where they allowed intercountry adoptions.
“They said I couldn’t adopt because I wasn’t married – I didn’t want to marry,” she said.
“But I really truly wanted to adopt.”
June reconsidered her objections and decided to search for a husband who would be willing to adopt a child.
This led to the start of June’s family, welcoming her first son: six-year-old Ben from India.
“Then Ben said, ‘It’s lonely here. I’m used to being with a lot of kids in the orphanage’.”
“So, we got him an Indian brother, Matthew, almost the same age.”
In a matter of time, June’s family of four expanded to eight as she welcomed José (13 years), Chris (12 years), Chip (three years) and Anna (four years) to the family.
“Taking six children with problems, was harder than I ever expected. There were times that I just wanted to run away and leave it all,” June said.
“But I don’t believe in people that don’t live up to their commitments. It was a hard job, but once I had them, I would never give them up, no matter what they did.”
June returned to Australia when her children were adults and currently resides in Beaudesert with Chip, her youngest son.
