A gay couple who found an abandoned baby on a subway in New York 20 years ago and adopted him have told their story to the BBC.
Danny Stewart had been going to meet his partner in the city, Pete Mercurio, in August 2000 when he noticed the abandoned baby in a baby carrier. He said:
"He didn't have any clothes on, he was just wrapped up in this sweatshirt. His umbilical cord was still partially intact, so I could tell he was a newborn. I was thinking maybe a day or so old. He did look up and I stroked his head and then he whimpered a little bit. It seemed really unreal, the whole situation, and at that point, I was trying to alert people to what was happening, but I couldn't get anybody's attention."
He immediately called 911 and the police arrived to take the baby into care.
Pete said:
"I remember turning to Danny and saying to him on the sidewalk as the police car was driving away, 'You know, you're going to be connected to that baby in some way for the rest of your life. Danny was like, 'What do you mean?' I said, 'Well, eventually, this child is going to learn of the night he was found and he may want to find the person who discovered him. Maybe there's a way that we can find out where he ends up and send a birthday gift every year on this date?'"
Stewart was later called by a tribunal to state how he had found the child. To his amazement at the tribunal, the judge asked him:
"Would you be interested in adopting this baby?"
Stewart recalled:
"I think most of the mouths dropped in the courtroom, including mine. I said, 'Yes, but I don't think it's that easy,' and the judge smiled and she said, 'Well, it can be'. I had not had thoughts of adopting but at the same time, I could not stop thinking that... I did feel connected, I felt like this was not even an opportunity, it was a gift, and how can you say no to this gift."
Pete said on first adopting the child:
"He was just staring up at me and I was just looking at him, and it was almost like he found a pressure point in my finger that just opened up my heart to my head and showed me in that moment that I could be one of his parents, one of his dads."
Two years later, the boy was officially adopted, and ten years later, the couple married after the legalisation of gay marriage. A marriage conducted by the very same judge who offered the boy for adoption.
Their son Kevin is now 20 and attends college, he will be forever thankful for the life he has been given by his two dads.
[h/t: Upworthy]
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