Firefighter Adopts Newborn Girl Left in Florida Safe Haven Baby Box: 'We Locked Eyes and That Was It'

"I picked her up and held her ... I've loved her ever since that moment," said the firefighter, who'd struggled to conceive with his wife for 10 years

A newborn who was surrendered at Ocala Fire Rescue's Fire Station No. 1 in Ocala, Florida, earlier this year has found a permanent new home.

A firefighter, who wished to remain anonymous, told TODAY he'd been working the overnight shift on Jan. 2 when he heard an alarm at 2 a.m. indicating a baby had been left at the department’s Safe Haven Baby Box, a device that allows someone to surrender a newborn who can’t be cared for.

“To be honest, I thought it was a false alarm,” the firefighter told the outlet.

But when he went to open the box, he found a baby girl wrapped in a pink blanket, as chronicled by Orlando CBS affiliate WKMG-TV.

“She had a little bottle with her and she was just chilling,” he recalled to TODAY. “I picked her up and held her. We locked eyes, and that was it. I’ve loved her ever since that moment.”

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Related: First Newborn Surrendered to Florida's Only Safe Haven Baby Box Over 2 Years After It Was Installed

The firefighter, who is also a paramedic, said he and his wife had been struggling to conceive a baby for over a decade and had even considered adoption. He decided that when he took the baby to the hospital, he would also ask about adopting her.

"I didn't call my wife right away because I didn't want to wake her up, but I knew she'd be on board," he said.

So he wrote a note with the baby girl detailing his and his wife’s struggles having a baby, and let them know they were ready and willing to take care of the child.

“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."

When he eventually told his wife what happened after he got home from work, he recalled how she started crying.

“I was like, ‘Don’t get too excited yet,’ ” he said. “My biggest fear was that the note I wrote wouldn’t stay with [the baby] and she’d be gone. It was a very stressful few days.”

Related: Firefighter Adopts Baby Girl He Delivered on the Job After Saving Her Life

However, the baby — whom the couple would go on to name Zoey — ended up going home with the couple on Jan. 4, two days after she was placed in the Safe Haven Baby Box. She stayed with them for months, before they officially adopted her in April.

The firefighter told TODAY that he still can’t believe how it all happened, and that it was difficult not to cry when telling the story.

“The way I found her ... this was God helping us out,” he said.

The firefighter said he wanted to tell his story to let Zoey’s biological mother "know that her child is taken care of and that she’s loved beyond words."

Zoey was the first baby placed in the Ocala Fire Rescue Safe Haven Baby Box. The box was first unveiled in December 2020, according to a fire-department post on Facebook.

"We know this baby will be so loved by an adoptive family," Safe Haven Baby Boxes founder Monica Kelsey said at a press conference in January after the baby was surrendered, "And we are so thrilled to be a part of protecting infants from abandonment."

According to the Safe Haven Baby Box website, there are 148 active devices currently in the United States, with 40 more communities working on placing a Safe Haven Baby Box in a local hospital or fire station.

At least 31 babies have been safely surrendered in the Safe Haven Baby Boxes across the country.

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