A smitten Florida firefighter has heartwarmingly revealed that he adopted a newborn girl who was left in a Safe Haven Baby Box.
On January 5, a rescuer - who wishes to remain anonymous - discovered a baby in the compartment after hearing an alarm go off at 2:00AM, according to Today.
The sound meant that a newborn had been left at the department's Safe Haven Baby Box - a device that allows someone to surrender a baby who can't be cared for.
Although false alarms were common, the firefighter still decided to take a look, and when he did, he saw an adorable infant calmly gripping a bottle and peering up at him. He would later name her Zoey.
The man said that when he saw little Zoey "chilling" with a little bottle in her hand, he "picked her up and held her," adding: "We locked eyes, and that was it. I’ve loved her ever since that moment."
The firefighter - who is also a paramedic - and his wife revealed to the publication that they have been struggling for more than a decade to have a baby.
"I didn't call my wife right away because I didn't want to wake her up, but I knew she'd be on board," he said of his plan to adopt the baby. So after transporting the baby to the hospital, he penned a letter to administrators expressing the couple's readiness to adopt Zoey and his wife's struggles with having children.
"I explained that my wife and I had been trying for 10 years to have a baby. I told them we'd completed all of our classes in the state of Florida and were registered to adopt," he said. "All we needed was a child."
When the firefighter eventually told his wife what happened after he got home from work, he recalled how she started breaking down in tears.
"I was like, 'Don’t get too excited yet,'" he explained. "My biggest fear was that the note I wrote wouldn’t stay with [the baby] and she’d be gone. It was a very stressful few days."
But thankfully, the couple got the OK to adopt Zoey and she officially become their daughter in April.
"The way I found her - this was God helping us out," the new dad said.
According to Safe Haven Baby Box, there are 148 active devices currently in the US, with 40 more communities working on placing the device in a local hospital or fire station. At least 31 babies have been safely surrendered in the Safe Haven Baby Boxes across the country.
The firefighter told the publication that he wanted to share his story in the hope that Zoey's birth mother would see it and find comfort in knowing her daughter was in a nurturing environment.
"We want her to know that her child is taken care of and that she’s loved beyond words," he added.
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