Luca Trapanese from Naples, Italy has broken all traditional norms. He is a proud, gay, single Catholic dad who adopted a one-month-old girl with Down syndrome and is not afraid to keep on breaking down barriers. All Trapanese wanted was a family, and he was able to get one after he met Alba, a baby girl with Down syndrome who had been previously rejected by 20 families.

For many families, taking care of a child with special needs can be quite a demanding task, but Trapanese did not think twice when he saw Alba. He knew how challenging it could be for a child to live with an illness. He got inspiration from his childhood best friend, Diego, to take care of Alba.

When he spoke to the BBC, Trapanese explained, “When I was 14, my best friend Diego discovered he had terminal cancer. When I found out about it, I decided to never leave his side. I went to the hospital with him, I helped him with his homework, and I would just always be there for him when he needed me.”

Trapanese is extremely proud to be Alba’s single dad

Trapanese has always made it clear how proud he is to be Alba’s single dad despite her Down syndrome disability. He has also maintained that adopting her was his way of continuing his friend Diego’s legacy and has said he has looked to Diego’s parents for inspiration.

“Diego was my best friend and I would do anything to help him,” he explained. “Diego’s death left me with a profound awareness of what living with an illness meant. That’s why I started volunteering with a church in Naples to help critically ill people and kids with disabilities,” explained Trapanese.

It was this volunteer service with the Catholic Church that inspired Luca Trapanese to make decisions about what he wanted to accomplish in his life.

From nearly becoming a Catholic priest to being a single dad

At age 25, Trapanese enrolled in a seminary to become a Catholic priest, but this plan changed when he fell in love with a man. He spent eleven years with his partner and founded a charity with him in Naples that is dedicated to working with people with disabilities. This is also when he decided that if they were to ever start a family, they would only adopt a child with a disability.

Unfortunately for the pair, they broke up before they could ever begin the adoption process. Trapanese was still very keen on becoming a parent after the break-up, but at the time, a single dad was not able to adopt a child in Italy.

He began the process of adopting a child immediately after restrictions were lifted and was told he would only be able to adopt a child with extreme disabilities. Trapanese was happy to be able to adopt any child at all, as he had always wanted to become a parent, and he knew he was prepared to undertake the massive task of adopting a special needs child.

He finally got the call in 2017

Trapanese recalls the day that the Tribunal, the court with general jurisdiction for civil and criminal matters in Italy, told him they had a baby girl for him. He explained that he received a call in which he was told that Alba, a 30-day-old baby girl with Down syndrome, had been abandoned by her mother and had also been rejected by more than 20 families.

This proud single dad of Alba will never forget the feeling. Trapanese recalled that after he received the call, he “struggled to contain [his] joy […and] immediately said yes.”

“I rushed to the hospital to pick her up,” he recalled. “She was in a teeny tiny cradle all by herself. When I first held her in my arms, I was overcome with joy. I felt she was my daughter straight away.”

Single Dad Adopts Girl With Down Syndrome Rejected by 20 Families

Luca Trapanese’s story went viral with the release of a book he wrote about his life with Alba, a story he says “destroys many stereotypes about fatherhood, religion and family.” Adoption laws in Italy are fairly strict, and rarely are single parents approved, but Alba’s condition warranted an amendment to the normal regulations. And Luca said he experienced no trepidation about the decision, driving to the hospital to fill out the paperwork the moment he was approved.

Luca had a history of volunteering and working with children with disabilities, so he felt prepared to raise a child with Down syndrome. And he couldn’t wait to become a dad.

“When I held her in my arms, I was filled with joy,” he told the BBC. “I felt she was my daughter immediately. I knew I was ready to be her father.”\

Luca said Alba, now 1.5 years old, loves to play and meet new people. “I will spend the rest of my life with a girl I love,” Luca says, “and we will do many wonderful things together.”