Some things are just too shocking to even think about, and this is certainly one of those cases.

Can you imagine that someone would leave their newborn baby behind in a busy New York City subway station full of people? The little baby was even placed on a seat, the poor thing was laying on the floor.

When Danny Stewart and his partner Pete Mercurio saw something on the subway floor, but they didn’t think much of it at first.

They thought it was just a baby doll until they saw its legs moving.

“I noticed on the floor tucked up against the wall, what I thought was a baby doll,” Danny said to BBC. “I glanced back one more time, and that’s when I noticed his legs moved.”

He was late for a dinner appointment with Pete and was in absolute shock when he realized what was going on. It all happened at the 14th Street subway station in the middle of Manhattan, over twenty years ago.

Only recently, Danny and Pete decided to share their remarkable story.

The abandoned baby, who was wrapped up in a sweatshirt, was quite literally a newborn, as Danny still recalls:

“His umbilical cord was still partially intact, so I could tell he was a newborn. I was thinking maybe a day or so old.”

Danny worked as a social worker and started yelling in the station for someone to call the police, but nobody responded.

He ran above ground with the baby to dial 911 at a payphone.

Cell phones weren’t widespread in the year 2000, but the police did arrive quickly to rescue the little baby. Danny’s partner Pete also showed up at the scene, who made a rather accurate premonition.

“I remember turning to Danny and saying to him on the sidewalk as the police car was driving away, ‘You know, you’re going to be connected to that baby in some way for the rest of your life,’” Pete told him.

After the police took the baby away, Danny and Pete actually wanted to check in on the baby, but they couldn’t find out what happened.

Then one day, Danny got a letter from the Administration for Children’s Services. He was asked to attend a court hearing, so he could testify. As the court hearing went on, the judge actually made a remarkable proposition.

He figured that it wouldn’t be a bad idea for Danny and Pete to adopt the little boy.

“I had not had thoughts of adopting,” Danny said. “but at the same time, I could not stop thinking that… I did feel connected, I felt like this was not even an opportunity, it was a gift, and how can you say no to this gift.”

Pete was wary at first and was particularly concerned with the practicalities.

They didn’t have a lot of room, were still living together with a roommate, and just never thought that they’d have a little one to take care of so soon.

Danny felt connected to this baby and was going to adopt him, no matter what.

Luckily, Pete changed his mind as soon as they visited the foster home where the boy was residing at.

They saw that he lacked attention and care, and it was hardly an ideal place for him to spend his youth.

When they visited, the boy even had infected diaper rash all over his body, and they just couldn’t stand seeing him like that. Pete held the baby in his arms, and that’s when he knew that they just had to bring him home.

“The baby squeezed my finger with his entire hand so hard,” he said.

“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.”

More than twenty years have passed, and this family of three couldn’t be any happier.

The little boy, Kevin, is now twenty years old and attending college.

Pete decided to retell this remarkable story about “Daddy Danny” and “Papa Pete” in his illustrated book titled “Our Subway Baby”.

“Where there is love, anything is possible,” the book concludes.

You can check out a part of their incredible story in the video below.

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Source: BBC, YouTube – Anderson