Baby left in shoebox at fire station came with emotional note from biological parents
In Kentucky, the Safe Haven Act allows anyone to anonymously and legally give up an infant at a safe and designated location—no questions asked. That’s what happened with a baby boy who was surrendered in a shoe box at a fire station in May of 2022. There weren’t many details about him, but his birth mother left a handwritten note in the box explaining that they couldn’t properly care for him.
“At the bottom, she wrote ‘I love you,'” said Brittany Tyler, the foster parent who eventually took care of the baby boy.
Brittany and her husband named him Samuel. After fostering him for 581, they adopted Samuel on Dec. 18, 2023. He joined two other former foster children they adopted, 8-year-old Judah and 5-year-old Calvin.
The Tylers received a call about fostering Samuel just days after he was found at the fire station. At the time, he weighed just over three pounds, and they first met him in the NICU. They were chosen because they frequently foster medically fragile babies.
“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,'” Brittany’s husband Chris told Today.com.
Judah and Calvin agreed — the parents say the three boys are now inseparable.
“Everybody lives for Samuel’s hugs,” Brittany said. “He’s such a cuddly kid.”
Adopting children from foster care has been a dream come true for Brittany, who struggles with infertility.
“All I ever wanted was to be a mom,” she said, adding that the family is currently in the process of adopting a little girl.
“Samuel is obsessed with her. He tries to pick her up like a baby doll and she just takes it,” she said.
She also noted that the family chose Samuel’s name for a special reason. In the Bible, Hannah is a barren woman who prays for a child.
“God answers the prayer and Hannah has Samuel,” Christ explained. And Samuel’s middle name is Ryan, after Brittany’s late brother, a firefighter.
They’re saving the note from Samuel’s birth mom for him to read when he’s older. And the blanket he was surrendered in was made into a special keepsake.
“I made it into a teddy bear,” Brittany said. “So that he always has a piece of her.”
