Safe Haven baby adopted by foster parents

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WAVE/Gray News) - Samuel Tyler made headlines when he was only a couple of days old after he was dropped off at a fire station in Louisville, Kentucky.

The baby boy was wrapped in a blanket with a note that read, “I love you,” when he was surrendered by his mother under Kentucky’s Safe Infants Act.

He was only three pounds and spent two weeks in the NICU.

Chris and Brittany Tyler heard his story and knew he would be put in a foster home. They prayed it would be their home.

“We got the phone call and it was one of those ‘Is it it? Is it it?’” Chris Tyler said. “They told us about him and it took no thought. ‘Yes, we’ll absolutely take him.’”

Samuel was their 16th foster child, but they immediately knew they wanted him to be part of their family forever.

After 581 days in foster care, Samuel was adopted.

“He was with us in one home the entire time. He didn’t bounce around in the system. It just took a while to get the paperwork done,” Brittany Tyler said.

The family celebrated the adoption with a visit to Build-A-Bear, where Samuel built a firefighter bear.

The Tylers will likely never meet Samuel’s birth mother, but they want her to know how much they admire her decision.

“She’s a role model. She’s a hero,” Chris Tyler said. “That’s something we will let him know about as we talk to him about character as he grows. It’s one of those things that we will say, ‘Hey look, this is what someone did for you. Someone did something very selfless for you.’”

In Kentucky, parents are allowed to leave babies under 30 days old at designated safe places that include hospital emergency rooms, police stations, fire stations, EMS or participating places of worship.