The story is from New York. It is about a gay couple who found a baby on the subway and now have a happy son.
A baby boy is left alone and finds his forever home.
Danny Stewart and Pete Mercurio are the subjects of this story. Danny was rushing to the subway to meet Pete when he saw a baby doll.
He thought about why someone would leave a baby on the subway. Danny had a thought after that. He told BBC about it: “I glanced back one more time, and that’s when I noticed his legs moved.”
Danny ran back towards him after seeing that the baby was alone on the subway. He told BBC: “He didn’t have any clothes on, he was just wrapped up in this sweatshirt. His umbilical cord was still partially intact, so I could tell he was a newborn. I was thinking maybe a day or so old.”
Danny told the radio station that it was shocking to find a baby boy alone, wrapped in a sweatshirt, in a place where there are always a lot of people.
“He did look up and I stroked his head and then he whimpered a little bit. It seemed really unreal, the whole situation, and at that point, I was trying to alert people to what was happening, but I couldn’t get anybody’s attention.”
In the 2000s, he ran up the stairs to call the police after finding help for the baby boy. He rushed back to the baby to make sure he was okay. He told BBC, “I’m sure it was just a few minutes, but time was standing still as my heart was racing.”
The baby was taken by the police after a few minutes of waiting. Pete and David bid farewell to the baby boy as the baby was being taken away.
Danny would see the baby again, as fate would have it, they would meet again, and this baby would become a huge part of their lives.
A few months later, David received a call from Administration for Children’s Services to attend a court hearing to speak about how he found the baby boy. The judge at the December 2000 court hearing asked David a crucial question. David told BBC, “And then the next thing out of her mouth was, ‘Would you be interested in adopting this baby?’” “I think most of the mouths dropped in the courtroom, including mine. I said, ‘Yes, but I don’t think it’s that easy,’ and the judge smiled and she said, ‘Well, it can be.’” “Also, I had not had thoughts of adopting, but at the same time, I could not stop thinking that… I did feel connected, I felt like this was not even an opportunity, it was a gift, and how can you say no to this gift.”
They did not make any decisions back then. They went to see the baby at his foster care system and Pete held the baby and felt something incredible. Pete told BBC, “The baby squeezed my finger with his entire hand so hard,” “He was just staring up at me and I was just looking at him, and it was almost like he found a pressure point in my finger that just opened up my heart to my head and showed me in that moment that I could be one of his parents, one of his dads.”
The day they adopted the boy was December 17th, 2002. Kevin is a college student who lives a happy life 20 years later. Talking about Kevin, Pete told BBC, “I can’t imagine my life if it didn’t turn out this way. My life has become much more enriched and full. It has changed my world view, my perspective, my whole lens.”
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