On a cold day in 2017, a 22-year-old student in Tallahassee, Florida was making her way past the parking lot of a student housing complex when she heard a sound that stopped her in her tracks. She followed the sound to a pickup truck and discovered a newborn baby boy, wearing only a onesie, lying alone in the bed. He was, at most, one week old.
The boy’s diaper was soiled and he was freezing.
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The fact this student was there to find the boy was his first stroke of good luck. The second came just minutes later, when Leon County EMS Captain Steve Suarez arrived on the scene, bringing with him a warming mattress that’s specifically designed for babies and children.
Suarez had only used the mattress one other time and just happened to have it with him. What are the odds?
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“We could tell he was relatively new to the world,” Suarez said of the baby he was able to help save. “I think we were all struck by how cold and alone he felt in the pick-up.”
The baby was rushed to the emergency room of Tallahassee Memorial Hospital, where fate intervened once again.
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Respiratory therapist Lorraine Nichols goes wherever she’s needed most, and on that morning, that happened to be the ER. Lorraine is a two-time survivor of breast cancer and is unable to conceive. She and her husband, Charles, had set their sights on adoption but found the process so painstakingly slow, they were considering hiring a private adoption attorney to speed things along.
But those plans went out the window the moment Lorraine held that freezing baby boy in her arms.
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As Lorraine cared for the boy, she felt an instant connection to him. “My heart just went out to him. He was left alone and there’s no telling how long he was really there,” she said. “I believe I became his mommy that moment, that day.”
She immediately called Charles, then the state Department of Children and Families, then their adoption case manager. Four days later, the baby boy, now named Charlie, went home with her. With the adoption finalized, Lorraine, Charles and Charlie got to celebrate their first Christmas that year as an official family, just seven months after Lorraine laid eyes on this previously unwanted baby!
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“He just fills that hole that I had in my heart,” Lorraine said as she celebrated her first Mother’s Day and Charlie’s first birthday. “I just feel like I have everything that I need and want and enjoy the fact that I can take care of him.â€
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Watch the video for more of Charlie’s sweet story. Share to spread more love and happiness!
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