Thanks to Kentucky’s Safe Haven Law, a baby boy surrendered at a fire station has finally been adopted by a loving family! Chris and Brittany Tyler always wanted kids, but had trouble conceiving. So, they started looking into foster care, instead. When they heard about the infant who’d been dropped off at the Louisville Fire Department, they knew they wanted to bring him home.
According to the New York Post, Sam weighed about three pounds when he was discovered by firefighters. His mom left a note explaining why she needed to surrender her baby at the fire station. She made it clear that she was doing this out of love for her child. Since the state’s Safe Haven Law allows a parent to legally and anonymously give up their baby at specific locations, she hoped to offer him a chance at a better life.
Chris and Brittany were more than ready to give Sam just that! They had already provided a caring home to 15 other foster children, two of whom they’d adopted: Judah, now 8, and Calvin, now 5. They wanted nothing more than to do the same for the Safe Haven baby who’d been surrendered at the fire station.
“So I read an article that had been posted online about him, and I knew that Safe Haven babies went to foster homes,” Brittany told Good Morning America. “And so I prayed and hoped that we would be the home chosen.”
When they got the call that Sam would be coming to live with them, they were more than thrilled.
“They told us about him, and it took no thought. ‘Yes, we’ll absolutely take him,’” Chris recalled to WAVE News.
This former Safe Haven baby has finally been adopted.
After spending 581 days in foster care, Sam is officially a Tyler! His new parents are so excited to call him their son. They even took him to Build-A-Bear to celebrate the occasion, getting him a firefighter bear in honor of the first responders who found him as a Safe Haven baby.
“He was with us in one home the entire time,” said Brittany. “So he didn’t bounce around in the system. It just took a while to get the paperwork done.”
Sam has grown into quite the curious toddler, according to his parents. His favorite words are, “What’s that?” When this inquisitive child starts asking about his birth mother, Chris and Brittany already know what they’re going to tell him. In their minds, Sam’s mom did the right thing by surrendering her baby at the fire station.
“She’s a role model, she’s a hero,” said Chris. “That will be something that we let him know about as we talk to him about character as he grows.”
For now, the Tylers are just glad to watch their Safe Haven baby grow into a healthy, happy boy. These parents deserve all the credit in the world for opening their hearts to the little boy. So does the fire department for making sure the babies surrendered to them go to great homes!
You can find the source of this story’s featured image here.