A man so determined to adopt an abandoned baby that he risked giving up his relationship
"I noticed on the floor tucked up against the wall, what I thought was a baby doll" Danny Stewart It was 8 p.m on 28 August 2000. Danny Stewart, 34 found a baby abandoned at a New York subway station. Naked and wrapped up in a sweatshirt, his umbilical cord still attached. Frantically, he ran out of the station to look for a payphone to call 911. Then he ran back to the baby. The police came and the newspapers reported about it the next day. Overnight, Danny and the baby became the talk of the town.
Danny's attempts to visit the baby at the hospital was in vain. His hope of connecting with the baby came when during a family court hearing, the Judge offered him a chance to adopt the baby. He shared the good news with his 32 year old boyfriend Pete Mercurio. Pete was not excited about it but Danny persisted.
"Danny had said at one point, 'I'm going ahead with this whether you're on board or not." Pete Mercurio 'They argued, and Pete felt that Danny was choosing the baby over their relationship. But when one day he visited the baby and carried him in his hands, he relented.
"The baby squeezed my finger with his entire hand so hard, 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." But 9/11 happened and the adoption process was delayed because the family court was located near Ground Zero. Finally on 17 December 2002, the adoption was finalized. They called him Kevin.
Growing up, Kevin loved books. But his favourite had to be the picture book that Pete made for him. It was his story and his bedtime story every night. Twenty years later, that story was published by Dial Books, an imprint of Penguin.
|
In 2011, Danny and Pete decided to get married and they invited that same Judge at the family court to officiate their marriage. You can imagine the Judge's emotion when she met Kevin at the ceremony.
It's been an eventful 20 years of parenthood for Danny and Pete. Looking back, they could not have imagined without having Kevin in their life.
"My life has become much more enriched and full. It has changed my world view, my perspective, my whole lens." Danny Stewart "I did not know that this level of deep love existed in the world until my son came into my life." Pete Mercurio This year marks the 20th anniversary of Kevin's adoption.
This gentle and incredibly poignant picture book tells the true story of how one baby found his home.
“Some babies are born into their families. Some are adopted. This is the story of how one baby found his family in the New York City subway.” So begins the true story of Kevin and how he found his Daddy Danny and Papa Pete. Written in a direct address to his son, Pete’s moving and emotional text tells how his partner, Danny, found a baby tucked away in the corner of a subway station on his way home from work one day. Pete and Danny ended up adopting the baby together. Although neither of them had prepared for the prospect of parenthood, they are reminded, “Where there is love, anything is possible.” (Hardcover / 40 pages / 4- 8 years / $31) In a Bookshell - Be inspired Now |