A gay couple from Santa Fe, Argentina, has adopted a girl who was born with HIV and reportedly rejected by ten families for her health condition.
In 2014 Olivia was an underweight 28-day-old infant, who was looking for a home, reported Out. Damian Pighin, 42 and Ariel Vijarra, the first openly gay couple to get married in Santa Fe had been looking to expand their family in 2011 when they got a call offering them to be Olivia’s parents. They immediately took her into their family when she was less than a month old.
“As soon as I saw her, I felt that she was part of my life,” recalled Vijarra. “The connection was immediate. We held her in our arms, gave her the bottle and she looked at us with her eyes open without crying,” he added.
Ariel and Damien work for ‘Acunar Familias’, a non-governmental organisation, which helps couples to adopt unwanted children. As soon as the couple brought her home, Olivia started to respond to her HIV treatment positively and gained weight. Although HIV is still one of the incurable diseases, her medical reports affirm that the virus was no longer detectable in her blood.
This is not all, upon learning the couple’s story a woman wanted them to adopt her baby girl. They did, and so the family grew by one more in 2015, when the three welcomed Victoria into their lives. The two siblings are similar in age, with Olivia turning five years old later this month and Victoria celebrating her fifth birthday in February.
Also Read: Madhya Pradesh: Dead Man Left Unattended, Ants Crawl On His Eyes, Five Doctors Suspended
