A baby who was delivered to a Kentucky fire station nearly two years ago was officially adopted last month, a milestone his parents said they had hoped and prayed for since they first learned of him.
“This is just an amazing story of grace on display,” Chris Tyler, 43, of Louisville, told Fox News Digital.
“From a loving mother to a baby and then to us too. “The hand of God is absolutely in this.”
The adoption was finalized just before Christmas, which Tyler and his wife Brittany said was a blessing.
“Sam is a curious little guy,” Chris Tyler said.
“He is really a ball of energy. He is the little brother who chases the older brothers with pirate swords and goes down the little roller coaster we have here at the house.”
Chris and Brittany Tyler adopted the boy who was surrendered to a Kentucky fire station almost two years ago. Photography Heather Shay
The couple, who had already adopted two older children, Judah, 8, and Calvin, 5, were expecting another addition to their family when they found out about Sam.
“We’ve been struggling with infertility for a long time,” Brittany Tyler, 36, told Fox News Digital.
“We wanted to start a family and things just weren’t working out the traditional way, so we started looking at adoption,” she said.
A baby named Sam (pictured) who was found surrendered at a Kentucky firehouse has now been officially adopted. Photography Heather Shay
“It is very expensive to use adoption agencies and we learned that you can adopt through foster homes and we thought it was an excellent option.”
It was in May 2022 when firefighters from the Louisville Fire Department found baby Sam in the baby box.
“It was early in the morning on truck 4, engine 22, which is in west Louisville,” Bobby Cooper, lieutenant colonel and deputy chief of the Louisville Fire Department, told Fox News Digital.
Baby Sam is shown as a baby at home with his older brothers Calvin, 5, and Judah, 8. Heather Shay Photography
“They knocked on the door and came out, and that’s where they met Samuel for the first time.”
The little baby, just a few days old, was found wrapped and placed inside a shoe box.
The box also contained a note from the boy’s biological mother, revealing why she had to give up her son.
Baby Sam was found wrapped and placed inside a shoe box. Photography Heather Shay
Just a year earlier, Governor Andy Beshear signed legislation creating a Safe Haven Act. It allowed children under 30 days old to be delivered in a “newborn safety device” or baby box at hospitals, fire stations and police stations.
“Safe haven laws in Kentucky and across the United States allow a mother to surrender a baby safely, anonymously and legally,” Cooper said.
“Our firefighters are very competent and capable, and very well versed in the law. “He is part of our training,” he stated.
Sam was safely delivered by his birth mother and placed in a baby box at the Louisville Fire Department. Photography Heather Shay
Firefighters took the baby inside and made sure he was safe.
“All of our firefighters are paramedics or EMTs, so they were able to do a quick assessment and make sure he was healthy, and he appeared to be healthy. He was resting and seemed well fed.”
They notified the appropriate authorities and arranged emergency transportation to take Samuel to a local children’s hospital for further evaluation.
Brittany Tyler is photographed holding baby Sam in the hospital’s NICU after he was delivered in a baby box at a fire station. tyler family
“When I read his story, I prayed that we would be the home chosen to take him in,” Brittany Tyler said.
They were, and shortly after the phone call, Chris and Brittany Tyler found themselves in the neonatal unit of a local hospital, holding the baby.
It weighed only 3 pounds.
It was then that the Tylers began to unravel the small details of their adopted son’s little life, such as the difficult decision his mother made, as recounted in her note.
“She wrote a little note with a little bit about herself and that she basically needed help,” Brittany Tyler said.
“And then at the bottom it said, ‘I love you.’ She scribbled it on a piece of paper and put it in the box with him, so we’ll keep it for him and someday his mom will give him these things. That way, he will know that she left him there the best way she could, all wrapped up.”
There is no judgment in the Tylers’ minds.
“She cared about him and loved him,” Chris Tyler said.
A few days after the baby returned home from the hospital, Brittany Tyler took little Sam back to the fire station where he was delivered, to take photos of the newborn.
And then, for her first birthday, the family returned for another photo shoot.
Cooper said the Louisville Fire Department considers Sam part of their family.
“We’re happy to be a part of Sam’s story,” Cooper said.
The Tylers have raised 17 children over the years.
They are now in the process of adopting a fourth child, a girl, they said.
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Source: vtt.edu.vn