Not everyone is ready to be a parent. It’s a hard and difficult choice to let go of a child. There isn’t always someone to help you make the choice to give up your child.
That is why many communities across the country have put in place Safe Haven Baby Boxes.
While the boxes may seem like a sad beginning for a child, one Florida firefighter is letting people know that’s not necessarily true. He should know – it’s how he found his daughter.
Vincent and his wife, Katie, had been trying to have a baby for more than 10 years. They had been unable to, so they had decided to adopt and were registered with the state agencies. But so far, they hadn’t been able to complete their family.
Until January. Vincent was working his overnight shift at the Ocala Fire Rescue Station, an alarm went off. Not for a fire, but for the Safe Haven Baby Box. The box is where an anonymous person can give up their child safely and legally, with no one having to know. The box has a silent alarm and is triggered once the baby is put inside.
Vincent went outside to the box, he said, and there was Zoey. She was covered in a pink blanket.
From right, Katie and Vince, talk about they chance meeting of the newly-adopted daughter, Zoey, on the Today show. Photo from YouTube
“I picked her up — she wasn’t crying,” Vincent said on the Today show.
That was it — I was in love with her.” For privacy, the family’s last name is being withheld.
Zoey was taken to the hospital to be checked out and Vincent made sure he went along. Once he was there, he said he gave the staff a note, explaining that he and his wife Katie would like to adopt her.
As soon as he could, he called Katie to tell her.
“I was like, ‘Don’t get too excited yet,” Vincent 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 the couple had little to worry about. Two days later, Zoey was at home with them. Three months later, she was officially adopted by Vincent and Katie.
“Before you finalize, anything can happen — and we’d experienced that in the past. So when the judge said, ‘You guys are a family,’ we kind of looked at each other and we’re like, ‘We’re a family! Holy guacamole, we’re a family!’” Katie said.
Zoey being held by her mother, Katie. Photo by Ocala Fire Rescue
So that was easily the best day of our lives.”
Vincent said it was just meant to be.
“God definitely put her in our lives, and gave us the opportunity to adopt her,” Vincent replied. Vincent added that he often keeps Zoey up a little later than he should, just so he can rock her and stare at her a little longer.
“Probably one of my favorite things to do is just watch her,” he said.
They wanted Zoey’s birth mom, wherever she was, to know that her daughter was safe.
“It’s not about me. It’s not about my wife. It’s not about our journey to have kids. It’s not about me being a first responder. It’s about this beautiful little girl who was given the chance of life, and that she’s been adopted, she’s loved and hopefully her birth mother sees it and recognizes that she did the right thing,” Vincent said. “She doesn’t have to worry anymore. Her daughter’s taken care of and is loved beyond words.”
Watch below for the heartwarming interview with the new parents.
