A baby girl who was successfully surrendered at Florida’s only Safe Haven Baby Box has been adopted by the very firefighter who rescued her.
The surrender occurred on the morning of January 2 in Ocala, Florida. The baby, now named Zoey, was left inside the fire station’s Safe Haven Baby Box, which is a temperature-controlled, monitored box where a parent can safely and anonymously surrender their baby in accordance with the law of their state.
said the firefighter, who wished to remain anonymous for privacy TODAY that he fell for Zoey the moment he saw her. “He had a little bottle with him and he was just cold,” she said. ” I picked him up and hugged him. Our eyes met, and that was it. I’ve loved him ever since.”
She said she and her husband had tried for years to adopt, so in a quick decision, she decided to send a handwritten note to the hospital where Zoey was taken after it was adopted according to standard protocol.
“I explained that my husband and I have been trying to have a child for 10 years. I told them that we completed all of our classes in the state of Florida and are registered to adopt,” he said. “All we need is a child.”
Upon hearing the news, his wife burst into tears.
“It was unreal until I got the call that I could be there with him in the NICU,” she said News 6. “We’ve been trying to have a family for almost a decade, and everything just doesn’t seem to be working out for us. So we were like, ‘Don’t get your hopes up, don’t get your hopes up.’”
In a turn of events that the couple describes as “God helping us,” their wish came true and they brought little Zoey home on January 4. The adoption was finalized in April.
“Everybody couldn’t believe it, honestly, that he was delivered to us almost and everything was pretty good where we could bring him home two days later,” said the new mom.
The man and his wife are telling their story to the media with the goal of giving the birth “a little closure,” and letting her know that Zoey is safe and loved.
“I think it’s very honorable, what he did,” said the adoptive mom. “We really felt in our hearts that we wanted to let the birth mother know in some way, shape, or form that she was safe, she was happy, and she was loved.”
