Just thinking about a newborn all alone up against a wall in a New York City subway gives me anxiety.
Thankfully, there were two guardian angels who found Kevin when he was abandoned there as a baby in August 2000. Those two angels ended upcoming Kevin’s actual guardians and parents.
We’re not crying, you’re crying 😢When the partner of Pete Mercurio ‘90, a Montclair State alumnus, rescued an abandoned…
Posted by Montclair State University onSaturday, April 10, 2021
“I noticed on the floor tucked up against the wall, what I thought was a baby doll,” Danny Stewart, who was 34 when he first discovered his son, told BBC.
Stewart was late to dinner with his partner Pete Mercurio, who was 32 at the time.
But he couldn’t help but stop over to see what was in that bundle he saw in the 14th Street subway station in Manhattan.
Gay couple who found baby on New York subway station adopted him and is now their son
Posted by We Are Humanity onSaturday, April 10, 2021
“I glanced back one more time, and that’s when I noticed his legs moved.”
What he found was a baby boy wrapped in a dark sweatshirt with its legs sticking out.
“His umbilical cord was still partially intact, so I could tell he was a newborn. I was thinking maybe a day or so old.”
What a remarkable story this is. 🙏👏👏👏
Posted by OMG onMonday, April 12, 2021
Stewart, who is a social worker, yelled out for someone to call the police but he couldn’t get anyone’s attention so he ran upstairs to use a payphone to call 911.
Eventually, the police arrived and so did Mercurio, who is a playwright and web designer.
“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,'” Mercurio said.
The couple tried to check on the baby but they didn’t find out about the child’s welfare until Stewart got an invitation from the Administration for Children’s Services to attend a family court hearing so he could testify during the meeting as to how he found the baby.
The judge eventually propositioned for Stewart to adopt the baby.
“I had not had thoughts of adopting,” Stewart recalls. “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.”
18 years ago today we picked up our boy from the foster care agency. Today we pick him up from college. ❤️••••#homecoming #foreverfamily #christmas
Posted by Pete Mercurio onSaturday, December 22, 2018
Mercurio didn’t see it as a practical move at the time since the couple didn’t have much space and they still had a roommate.
Eventually, Stewart decided he was going to adopt Kevin with or without him.
But it didn’t get to that. Once the couple visited the baby at his foster home they realized it was not an ideal place for him since he wasn’t being cared for properly.
Hot off the press! Administration for Children’s Services Commissioner David A. Hansell just recently unveiled the…
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The child was found to have a sore and infected diaper rash from his belly button, all around his hips, thighs, and back.
Once Mercurio first held the baby, it was a done deal.
“The baby squeezed my finger with his entire hand so hard,” he said.
It felt like it was 'meant to be' 💕
Posted by Daily Mail onTuesday, April 13, 2021
“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.”
Posted by Pete Mercurio onSunday, September 13, 2020
Now at 55 and 42, Stewart and Mercurio couldn’t be happier that Kevin, now 20 and in college, is their son.
Mercurio just published an illustrated book, Our Subway Baby, to commemorate the tale of Daddy Danny and Papa Pete finding their son.
“Where there is love, anything is possible,” the book tells readers.
Their story was also turned into a film called Found. Learn more about this family’s incredible story in the video below.
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