We may never truly understand why some mothers can’t keep their babies but what matters the most is the welfare of the baby.
In the U.S. there are Safe Surrender Laws where parents of newborns who can’t care for their babies can give up their child at a safe place with no questions asked.
These laws were put in place to help prevent newborns from being dumped in potentially life-threatening situations.
One safe haven in Santa Ana, California is Station 75 fire department where Capt. Daryll Milliot was on duty one day when a mother holding her 15-hour-old newborn rang the doorbell.
“I opened the door and the first words out of her mouth were, ‘I need to give you my baby,’” Capt. Milliot said.
Baby Naomi was the first infant to be surrendered to the fire station and those on duty, including Michael de Leon, Tyler Green, and Shawn Stacy, did their best to comfort the newborn until a social worker arrived.
The firefighters fell in love with sweet baby Naomi and now think of themselves as her “unofficial uncles.”
Thankfully it wasn’t long before Naomi found a new home with Krysten and Kurt Snyder who said the moment they got the call about Naomi they didn’t hesitate to jump into action.
“It’s so crazy — one moment we say, ‘Yes, we are taking a baby,’ and the next moment you are packing the car up, making the list for Target of all the things you need to get,” Krysten said.
Despite her new loving home and her 1-year-old brother, who the Snyders were in the process of adopting when they got the call about Naomi, she’s never forgotten her “unofficial uncles.”
The doting firefighters even got to attend Naomi’s adoption ceremony.
“It’s one of the highlights of my career by far, going to that ceremony and seeing her again because when it happens you don’t know what’s going to happen to the baby,” firefighter Michael de Leon told CBS LA.
Mom Krysten said they would always be open about Naomi’s birth story.
“It’s a great opportunity for us to tell her about her mom, and what a courageous thing she did,” she said.
