Anyone who has gone through a battle with infertility can tell you it’s blisteringly unfair. A couple who badly wants a child tries and tries for years, often spending tens of thousands of dollars, meanwhile having babies seems very easy for everyone else. This is a very real pain a firefighter in Ocala, Florida was experiencing one night this past January while on duty at the firehouse. He and his wife had been trying to have a baby for ten years, but their arms were still empty.
But as we all know, life can change in an instant, and for this firefighter, it certainly did. He was getting some sleep during an overnight shift when he was awakened by an alarm at 2 A.M.
He immediately knew that it wasn’t a fire alarm, but rather the alarm attached to the station’s Safe Haven Box, where individuals can anonymously place an infant without fear of penalty or prosecution, no questions asked.
“To be honest, I thought it was a false alarm,” said the firefighter, who asked to remain anonymous to protect his family’s privacy. But of course he did his duty and raced to check the box anyway. What he saw would change his life: a tiny newborn baby girl wrapped in a pink blanket.
“She had a little bottle with her, and she was just chilling,” he said. “I picked her up and held her. We locked eyes, and that was it. I’ve loved her ever since that moment.”
Love at first sight! It’s something every parent understands, and this firefighter is no different. Immediately his mind started racing. He knew he had to get this baby to the hospital, but he also wanted to make it known that there was a ready and loving home for this little girl: his.
So, at the hospital, he left a note with the baby girl. “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.”
Then he called his wife. “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.”
Happily, his fears were unnecessary. The note found its way into the right hands, and two days after she was placed in the Safe Haven Box, the baby girl, now named Zoey, was home with the firefighter and his wife. Eventually they learned that Zoey was so newly-born when he scooped her up from the Safe Haven box, that her umbilical cord had been tied off with a shoelace. Within three months, they had legally adopted her. God had made a family.
“The way I found her … this was God helping us out,” he said, mentioning that it’s very hard not to get tear-eyed when he shares Zoey’s story.
And why is he sharing this story, even though he wants to remain anonymous? Well, he’s hoping Zoey’s mother will see it. He wants her to have closure. “We want her to know that her child is taken care of and that she’s loved beyond words,” he said.
She was loved beyond words by God already, and now, she’s loved beyond words by her mom and dad. What an incredible story, and what an incredible life I know Zoey will have!
