Pete Mercurio was to meet her husband Danny Stewart for dinner in August 2000. On the way out the door, her husband called and told him that he had found an abandoned baby on the subway.
Stewart had seen a small bundle wrapped in a sweater at an empty subway station in New York, and quickly discovered that it was a newborn baby who still had the umbilical cord attached.
Mercurio says he ran to the station, where he found Stewart with police officers. The little boy was taken to a nearby hospital, and the couple was told that the baby was only a few hours old.
Baby and two-year-old abandoned: – Heartbreaking
– For the rest of my life
– At one point I turned to Danny and said “We will be attached to this baby in some way for the rest of our lives”, Mercurio tells CNN. At that time completely unaware of what was going to happen.
The baby was taken care of by the child welfare service while a search was carried out for the boy’s parents. Three months later, Stewart was asked to testify at a hearing the day the baby was found.
– Would you be interested in adopting, Judge Stewart asked.
– Yes, but I know it’s not that easy, he replied.
– Well, it can be, the judge said.
A pilot project taking place in New York at this time gave the judge the authority to speed up the adoption process, according to Mercurio.
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