Spain's first same-sex married couple to adopt in Colombia shares their story

By Oriol Fort Aranyó, Service Manager at Colt Barcelona.

My husband Marc and I wanted to be parents since a long time ago and searched all kind of ways to have a baby (co-paternity with a lesbian couple who are friends of ours, surrogacy and national and international adoption). We didn’t think that adopting abroad was possible but we did it in 2019!

We finally found that Colombia accepts same-sex married couples from outside the country adopting 0 to 5 year old children. This is also possible in a shorter timescale than adopting in Spain (the whole process took 2 years and a half for Colombia vs 9 years for Spain).

We had to pass same tests including the same rules as the heterosexual couples to get the Spanish certificate of suitability for adoption even for adopting abroad.

We could finally meet our daughter Mila the 9th August 2019 in one of the orphanages in the city of Cali in Colombia and we had a follow up for one month. We stayed in Cali for 15 days and met a lawyer and an assistance of the Colombian government was doing all kind of reports on Mila and the psychologist from the orphanage came to our hotel 10 days later to check how the bond was forming between Mila and her new parents (us).

After we flew to Bogotá to get Mila’s Colombian Passport with our family names. In the Colombian institution in Bogotá we were told that we were the first Spanish same-sex married couple to adopt in Colombia. The total adoption process in Colombia took one month and we finally could fly back to Barcelona on September 5th 2019 with her.

Being the first Spanish same-sex married couple to adopt in Colombia meant a lot to us. When we arrived in Barcelona the Adoption Agency wanted to meet Mila and the agency’s staff told us that the Catalan TV and Radio wanted to interview us. We did not expect this response but thanks to the exposure Spanish same-sex couples have been able to adopt in Colombia, which is great.

My personal impact adopting my daughter is of course the time investing with. Before adopting, people said that I would not be able to travel as I usually did or go out to dinner as often or go to the cinema, etc.. and it is true, but it is a choice my husband and I have made. Our desire to be fathers was stronger than enjoying the leisure time we had before becoming parents.

Mila is a very happy girl and she loves hugging. When we walk on the street Mila walks in the middle of us and holds our hands. At home, Mila grabs our heads with her arms and hugs us and all of that means a lot to us because a strong bond has been created. She is very happy to go to school and she has made friends. She is also happy to meet her cousins and she loves dancing and going to the park, riding her bike and children’s scooter

I have to say also that Colt had been really supportive and my manager was super flexible along the whole adoption process. Also HR was very supportive. One colleague from HR came with me to the Social Security office (next to Colt office in Barcelona) because I was the first employee adopting at Colt Barcelona and they wanted to learn how an adoption process worked in administrative terms.

Every time I had an appointment or with the Government (Adoption institution) my team leader and workmates asked me how was the process going and I can say that this support was very helpful.

My favourite moment as a parent so far is the first night we had Mila sleeping in the baby basket in our room hotel. I literally cried of happiness for five hours and did not sleep at all. My brain was processing that night that I became father.