A firefighter who rescued a newborn baby girl from a Safe Haven Baby Box in Florida has chosen to adopt her into his family.
According to Live Action, the infant was surrendered on January 2, 2023, in Ocala, Florida, and left in a fire station’s Safe Haven Baby Box.
The box is a temperature controlled, monitored box where parents can safely, anonymously and legally surrender their infant. When an infant is placed in the box, an alarm sounds to alert the fire station.
The firefighter, who wants to remain anonymous, told Today that when he was first called to the box, he thought it was a false alarm. He opened the box to find a healthy baby girl wrapped in a pink blanket, who has now become his daughter, Zoey.
The firefighter and his wife had been trying for 10 years to conceive a child, but with no success.
“She had a little bottle with her and she was just chilling,” he recalls. “I picked her up and held her. We locked eyes, and that was it. I’ve loved her ever since that moment.”
According to one federal study, over 22,000 newborn babies are left in hospitals every year by parents who don’t want to or can’t care for their children. And according to the National Safe Haven Alliance, 31 babies were illegally abandoned in 2021 and were found in dumpsters, backpacks or other dangerous locations.
Every child, born and preborn, is made in God’s image and deserves to be loved, protected and cared for.
Dozens of Safe Haven Baby Boxes have been installed since 2016. Over 130 babies have been placed in the boxes as a result of the Safe Haven Baby Box organization’s 24-hour hotline (1-866-99BABY1) which “give women the opportunity to talk to a trained professional as they consider safely surrendering their baby.”
The organization’s efforts are reminiscent of the pro-life movement that resulted from the early Christian Church. In the Roman Empire, individuals who had an “unwanted pregnancy” often resorted to infanticide by leaving their newborn children out in the sun to die of exposure.
Early Christians – whose minds and hearts were transformed by the grace of Christ – would rescue these babies.
Now, Safe Haven Baby Boxes, thousands of pregnancy resource centers and national pro-life organizations like Focus on the Family, are a modern equivalent of that early pro-life movement.
In his interview with Today, the firefighter added, “The way I found her… This was God helping us out.”
Currently, the United States has more than 440,000 children in foster care. Focus on the Family’s Wait No More program helps inspire families to become involved in the lives of waiting kids, whether through adoption or in a different way.
To learn more about Wait No More, click here.
Related articles and resources:
Guest Post: Teen Raises $10K to Install Safe Haven Baby Box, Newborn Saved Just One Year Later
Teen Starts Lawnmowing Business to Raise Money so Stepfather Can Adopt Him
Photo from Today.
