Uncertain of his origins and curious to learn the truth about his story, Joel set out to retrace the steps he took as a 5-year-old boy in poverty-stricken Quezon City – the day his life changed forever.

Joel’s is a classic tale of perseverance against all odds – curiosity-fuelled determination to find the answers to questions he has had unanswered for 31 years.

When interviewing Joel, Liam Bartlett commented that if Joel wasn’t a filmmaker, he may have never found his mother. When Joel set out to start his search, he had little idea of where to begin or where it would lead, but he knew that he had to document the process.

It was Joel’s production skills that assisted him in putting together a strategy to create and follow leads from the very limited facts and use his questioning skills to find information. Despite having these skills, finding information was a complicated and frustrating process for Joel as he did not speak the language and discovered the challenges of finding records in a developing country whose systems are so dysfunctional or non-existent.

The struggle of not having any information to go by, meant that accessing records was impossible as he was not able to give even the minor details of name of mother or birthdate to prove his identity enough to petition official documentation.

Despite the assistance of a translator on the ground, communication was problematic and constant misinterpretation of the facts and the details led him to multiple dead ends and false leads.

However, was because of Joel’s profession and tenacity that he was able to get the attention of GMA (television station in the Philippines that covered Joel’s story) and get their assistance in getting the message to a mass audience.

Joel was determined to engage award-winning Filipino broadcast journalist, Jessica Soho, to share his story, knowing that it was the only way to overcome his lack of information of his parents’ identities. Unfortunately, a missing child is such a common occurrence in countries like the Philippines, that it took five desperate attempts to catch the producers attention and enlist their aid. Due to the massive audience of the program and its international reach, the responses began to flood in and paired with Joel’s determination, he was able to locate his biological mother just 24 hours before he was due to leave the country.

Although this story could be said to have a happy ending, the reality is that as an adoptee, the process of closure is never ending. Most people think that when an adoptee finds their biological mother, the wounds are miraculously healed and they simply continue to live their lives feeling whole after finding the missing pieces.

However, it is important to acknowledge that the effects of trauma, grief and loss, separation and isolation take time to heal, and that often the process of fitting two people’s lives together who’ve been apart for so long and are more like strangers can be challenging, particularly when the elements of geographical distance, cultural difference and a language barrier are added.

Adoption is a complex topic and what lies behind the scenes of happy reunion stories or stories of children escaping poverty and being given the chance to start a new life full of opportunities are the myriad of social and emotional challenges that come from a loss of identity, culture and separation from family. Joel hopes to shed some light on the prevailing issues that so many intercountry adoptees face such as integration to another culture, experiences of the adopted child, identity formation and what happens after reunion.

The process of forming relationships with a new family who, albeit biological, are still in essence strangers, is complicated and often goes undocumented. Joel’ story still has a long way to go in terms of reforming a bond with his biological mother and family, navigating communication a foreign language, understanding cultural customs and expectations and figuring out how this can all fit in with his life in Australia.

Joel longs to share his life in Australia with Herminia and is currently working on getting her a passport and visa to come to visit.  He also plans to attend an anniversary event at the orphanage later this year and to speak at a book launch held by ICAB in June that addresses the experiences and stories of various intercountry adoptees in the hope of bringing awareness to the complex issues around adoption and the effects on families. These are critical milestones of the documentary that are yet to be filmed and integrated into the overall story arch.

Joel is now developing the documentary film of his story, ‘The Long Journey Home’

He’s currently trawling through the 37 days of raw footage, 20 interviews, the many location shoots around bustling Manila, and weaving through his magic thread to capture and share his emotion-filled experience and there is still more he has to document.

Joel was lucky to find his parents and thus rewrite the introduction to his life story. He hopes by sharing this documentary he’ll motivate others to find their story too.