Single man adopts girl who lived in hospital for a year (and it changes both of their lives)

The hero of our story today is a single gay man who dreamed of becoming a father in a country where the LGBTQ+ community is still taking its first steps in the fight for its rights. And his path to forming a strong, loving family was a complicated one. He needed to overcome all the difficulties that arose to give a loving home to an abandoned little girl. But he built the family he always dreamed of having.

We, from awesome.clubwe want to present Pablo Fracchia, believing that the story of his life can inspire anyone to fight for their own happiness.

Pablo Fracchia is an Argentinean social worker, Red Cross volunteer and LGBTQ+ activist. All his life he dreamed of becoming a father. “But then I found out I was gay, and growing up in the 90s showed that the idea of ​​forming a family being gay was something impossible in Argentina,” he says. “Something super cruel for a teenager who had to choose between being who he was and giving up his own dreams”.

Later, Fracchia began working with the Argentine LGBTQ+ Federation, which had been fighting to guarantee the right to gay marriage. “After that, the idea of ​​starting a family, especially having a child, which had been left behind, came back to my mind”. In 2017, therapy and a process of rethinking things allowed fears and uncertainties to be overcome, making Pablo decide to pursue his dream.

“As I always say, when desire overcame fear, I decided to go ahead and fill out the papers for the adoption process”.

Two years later, in 2019, the chance Fracchia had been waiting for finally arrived. “A judge from the Family Court called saying that there was a little girl, 1 year and 10 months old at the time, living in a hospital”, remembers Pablo. “Mia had a gastrointestinal condition that required care and, as her biological family was unable to afford it, the court decided that she should be sent to a ‘temporary home / hospital’ that the government maintains for children with health problems”.

“In Argentina, the adoption process is not usually difficult, but it is extremely long”, says Fracchia. Furthermore, in the province where Pablo lives, the “Family Court is the one who chooses the father and decides whether or not you can adopt the child. So it comes down to whether you have a judge who is sensitive, open and inclusive enough to consider that a single gay man might be a good father to a child.”

Pablo was not the only candidate in the adoption process. “The court had four other couples on the evaluation list,” he recalls. “Now, imagine being gay and single. I thought I had very little chance of being chosen.” Fortunately, the judge was objective enough to make a decision that overcame preconceptions. “The next day I traveled to the hospital to meet her. I had never seen Mia before, not even in a photo”, she says.

After Pablo arrived at the hospital, the nurse took him to the room where the two would meet. “The door opened, and there she was, on a nurse’s lap,” recalls Pablo. “I was sitting up, so the nurse came over and handed me the little girl. We hugged for a long time. A few minutes later, she pointed to a toy and started playing with it. And then Mia nodded, indicating she wanted me to join her. I joined in the fun. And that was it. We met”.

After Mia entered his life, Pablo had to give up his unpaid activities. He stopped working as a Red Cross volunteer and in humanitarian missions, as these jobs required him to spend a lot of time away from home. “Being a Red Cross volunteer was an important part of me,” says Pablo. “I spent more time in my life than outside the Red Cross. The values ​​and principles of the organization formed me as a man”. “The idea of ​​leaving the organization was difficult, but it was worth it. I would do it all over again,” he says.

Have you ever adopted or thought about adopting a child? Do you think the story of Pablo and Mia serves as inspiration? Leave a comment with your impressions!