A firefighter who discovered a baby in a Safe Haven box has shared a message to her biological mum - and described the moment he locked eyes with the tot.
Baby Zoey was discovered in the box in Ocala, Florida by a firefighters station, with her umbilical cord tied off with a shoelace.
She was later adopted by the couple, who had with infertility for a decade - and now her adoptive parents, who have asked to remain anonymous, have sent a message to her biological mum.
The adoption took place in April via a Zoom proceeding - and now the dad has described the moment he heard the baby box alarm go off - and assume it was a false alarm.
Now, he has described the moment he looked inside to find a tiny infant girl he would later name Zoey calmly gripping a bottle and peering up at him.
“She had a little bottle with her and she was just chilling,” he told Today. “I picked her up and held her. We locked eyes, and that was it. I’ve loved her ever since that moment.”
He had struggled to conceive a child with his wife for the better part of a decade, and the chance encounter instantly prompted him to consider adopting her.
“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.
After driving the baby to the hospital, he wrote a note to officials expressing his desire and readiness to adopt.
“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.”
The next call was to his spouse, who burst into tears of cautious hope - after the couple spent 10 years trying to have a child.
“I was like, ‘Don’t get too excited yet,’” he said. “My biggest fear was that the note I wrote wouldn’t stay with Zoey and she’d be gone. It was a very stressful few days.”
But just days later, Zoey was in their home — and she officially become their daughter in April.
“The way I found her — this was God helping us out,” he said.
The firefighter told the outlet that he wanted to share his story in the hope that the child’s mother would see it and find comfort 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 said.
According to Safe Haven’s website, there are currently 148 boxes around the country, and 31 infants have been surrendered in them.
