Five years ago, on a quiet, windy night at Fire Station #14, I heard an unusual rustling near the front steps. As I approached, I discovered a small basket containing a newborn baby, swaddled in a thin blanket that had clearly seen better days. The infant looked up at me with wide, searching eyes, and the instant I held him, I felt a surge of emotion I had never experienced before—a combination of awe, fear, and an instinctive desire to protect him. My training as a firefighter had prepared me for emergencies, but nothing had prepared me for the raw vulnerability of this tiny human life suddenly entrusted to me. After carefully checking him over and calling for medical help, I waited with him until Child Protective Services arrived to take him into temporary care. Despite knowing that was the proper legal step, I couldn’t stop thinking about the baby whose small fingers had curled around mine with such trust. The weeks that followed…
