Baby surrendered at birth in Tustin adopted, reunites with firefighters
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It was after hours on December 19, 2017, so Orange County Fire Authority firefighter Linda Brown was dressed in a T-shirt and shorts when the doorbell rang at Orange County Fire Station 21 in Tustin.
On the other side of the entrance’s bright red double-doors stood a woman on the verge of making a choice that would shape the rest of her newborn son’s life.
“She really wanted to do the right thing,” Brown said. “You could tell the decision tore her up.”
She and the rest of the crew at the station walked the mother through the process of giving up her baby for adoption. Once they had gone over all of the parent’s options, Brown strapped on her heavy turnout boots with one hand as she held the child in the other, and they rode together in an ambulance to a hospital that would give him a checkup and continue the process of finding a new family for him.
California law permits parents or guardians of babies 3-days-old or younger to anonymously surrender their children into the custody of local social services agencies if they don’t believe they will be able to provide adequate care. The provision was intended to prevent the abandonment of children in unsafe locations like trash bins or public restrooms, according to Denise Churchill of Orange County’s Department of Children and Family Services. She said the law also helps abandoned newborns connect with couples willing to adopt them.
Statewide, 770 surrendered children were taken in between January 1, 2001 and December 31, 2015, according to the California Department of Social Services
Of the 80 babies dropped off at fire stations, hospitals and other designated safe-surrender sites in Orange County since 2002, 73 had either found new homes or were in the process of being adopted, according to Churchill. Seven children were reunited with parents who sought to regain custody within two weeks of relinquishing it.
Safe-surrender is an uncommon practice, and the emergency responders and medical professionals who initially receive babies from their guardians rarely learn what happens to the children once they are in the care of social services officials, according to Brown. She said she felt a bond with the boy only minutes after taking him into her arms for the first time, and became intensely curious about what happened to him after they parted. She wondered and hoped that he had found a good family.
Almost a year later, she was overjoyed to learn that the baby had been given the name Noah and, after 10 months of foster care in the home of Javier and Tim Salazar of Laguna Hills, was adopted by the couple on Oct. 17.
Baby Noah pulled his fingers out of his mouth and reached out with both arms upon seeing Brown and her colleagues during a reunion with the crew of station 21 on Thursday. Once in her arms, he briefly studied her face in recognition. It was only a moment however, before the nearly 1-year-old boy was distracted by firefighter Donnie Hall’s mustache and gleefully palming anything in reach.
The Salazars said Noah was in good health, and described a whirlwind process of learning to care for a child. They thanked the team at Station 21, the nurses who watched over their adopted son in the hospital and the social services caseworkers who helped bring Noah into the couple’s lives. The boy’s new family also expressed gratitude to his biological parents.
“I want them to know they did the right thing,” Javier Salazar, tears forming in his eyes. “I want them to know that he is safe, he is happy, and they don’t have to worry if they made the right decision or not.”