Baby Adopted By First Responder Who Found Her

June 22, 2023

Natalie Gard,

Monica Kelsey, firefighter and medic who is president of Safe Haven Baby Boxes Inc., poses with a prototype of a baby box, where parents could surrender their newborns anonymously, outside her fire station in Woodburn, Ind., Thursday, Feb. 26, 2015. The box is actually a newborn incubator, or baby box, and it could be showing up soon at Indiana hospitals, fire stations, churches and other selected sites under legislation that would give mothers in crisis a way to surrender their children safely and anonymously. (AP Photo/Michael Conroy)

Chattanooga, Tennessee—(Pulse)

A baby placed in a Florida Safe Haven box has been adopted by the first responder who found her.

The adoptive mother is a firefighter for Ocala Fire Rescue who discovered the infant with a shoelace tying off the umbilical cord. She started the adoption process after bringing the baby to a hospital.

“We’ve been trying for almost a decade to have a family, and everything has kind of not worked out for us,” the adoptive mother said. “We really felt in our hearts that we wanted to let the birth mom know in some way, shape or form that she is safe, she is happy, and she is very loved.”

Florida Safe Haven laws allow parents to leave unharmed newborns at safe haven facilities without being prosecuted. Safe havens can be found at locations across the nation. (WFLA)