Girl with Down syndrome rejected by twenty families found a father
Little Alba was abandoned by her mother just after her birth. Finding an adoptive family for the girl with Down syndrome turned out to be an extremely difficult job. Twenty families rejected it, but Luca Trapanese (41) did not hesitate for a moment. The single Italian man immediately said ‘yes’ when he was asked the question. And so, Luca’s greatest wish came true and Alba got the loving dad she deserved.
Luca wanted to become a dad for a long time, but he had to fight long before his dream. In fact, he wanted to start a family with his partner at the time. “We decided that we would adopt a child with a disability together,” says the Italian man. For years, the couple headed an organization that supervised children with disabilities.
But after eleven years that relationship was not right. That was a tough ordeal for Luca. His chances of adopting a child declined considerably. In Catholic Italy, it is very difficult to have a baby assigned as a single man and a gay person.
At the time that Luca wanted to store his dream, a breakthrough ensued. “At the beginning of 2017, I was allowed to nominate myself as an adoptive father. I was told that I was only eligible for a ‘problem child’, according to Luca.
Adoption
Single people are only eligible in Italy to adopt children with disabilities or behavioural problems. Usually, it is also about children who have been rejected by all other families. But Luca was not shocked. “Based on my experience, I knew I could handle all problems.”
In July 2017 Luca finally got a redeeming phone call from the Italian family judge: “They said they had a little girl in front of me. Her name is Alba and she is 30 days old. She had Down syndrome and was abandoned by her biological mother. She was also rejected by more than 20 families. I could barely control my joy. I immediately said ‘yes’.”
Immediately afterwards he drove to the hospital to pick up Alba. To this day, he remembers the touching moment in which he held the little girl in his arms for the first time. And now they are a great team. “Alba has a very strong personality and sometimes she can be very stubborn. She likes to play, dance and eat.”
His motives
He wrote a book about his special family: ‘Nata per te’ (‘Born for you’). Luca also keeps a personal blog on Facebook, so his followers get a glimpse into his daily life with Alba. By making his story public, Luca wants to make a positive contribution to the discussion about the adoption rights of single parents.
Luca would not be able to miss Alba any day, and Alba also loves her adoptive father. Together they form an inseparable duo and they can handle the whole world.
