Baby who was abandoned in a shoebox at fire station finally finds his forever home

We have all heard fictional stories of infants being left alone by their parents on the street or in the jungle because their parents cannot take care of them. This is actually the ground reality, as a lot of individuals do not have the resources to take care of a child properly. Fiction turned to reality when foster parent Brittany Tyler encountered the news story of a baby boy who had been left alone at a fire station. The moment she saw the news, she began to hope that the baby boy would be placed with them, per TODAY. The state of Kentucky has the Safe Infant Act, which has provisions for individuals to anonymously and legally relinquish an infant at any location without any questions asked.

Brittany and her husband, Chris, did not know a lot of details at the time about the circumstances under which the baby boy was left there. The couple later got to know that the boy's mother was unable to give him the proper care he needed. Therefore, she put him in a shoebox along with a handwritten note going into the details of why she could not take care of him. They ended up naming him Samuel, who is presently 20 months old. Brittany and Chris were able to adopt him after fostering him for 581 days.

They also adopted two other boys, Judah, 8, and Calvin, 5, through the foster care system. The couple were called up a few days after Samuel was found at the fire station. They were chosen because they fostered medically fragile babies. The couple got to see Samuel for the first time outside the neonatal intensive care unit (NCIU), and he weighed just over 3 pounds. Chris spoke about the experience, saying, "I remember holding him in my arms and knowing right off the bat, 'This is my boy. This is the next member of our family.'"

Getting to adopt these foster kids is a dream come true for the couple after they had a lot of problems related to infertility. Brittany shared that all she had ever wanted was to become a mother. In fact, the couple seems to be quite fond of kids because the doormat outside their house reads, "Just so you know, there's a lot of kids here." The couple is presently in the process of adopting another foster child, a baby girl. Samuel has already made quite the impression on his two older brothers, as the three have grown quite close.

The infant is also in awe of his new baby sister, trying to pick her up every chance she gets. The couple wants Samuel's biological mother to know that they are immensely grateful to her for the noble choice she made. They have kept her handwritten note safely so that Samuel could read it when he got older. He also continues to sleep with the blanket, which was turned into a teddy bear by Brittany, stating, "So that he always has a piece of her." You can follow Heather Shay's work on Facebook.

Editor's note: This article was originally published on February 2, 2024. It has since been updated.