Safe Haven Provides Places To Save Infants

SEMINOLE COUNTY, Fla. - WESH.com

Mothers of newborn babies who feel they aren't ready to be a proper parent can drop off that child at Safe Haven locations throughout Florida with no questions asked.

The state law will be 10 years old next year, and since it was enacted 139 babies have been left at hospitals, fire stations and similar designated Safe Haven locations and then adopted. The child must be no older than 7 days.

"There's a joy, everyday waking up and seeing his face and hearing the things that he says. I mean he's a character," said Aja Terrell, who adopted a Safe Haven child with her husband, Richard.

The boy, named Kristopher, is now 5.

"God gave me, gave me, to my mom," Kristopher said in their Seminole County home.

Richard Terrell said, "Once little Kristopher came to us it was just better, it was just that much better."

Some don't make the choice that Kristopher's birth mother did. In Marion County recently, a newborn was found on the side of a road covered with ant bites.

"You don't want a child to perish just because you're overwhelmed," said Tisha Robinson of the Florida Department of Children and Families.

Aja Terrell agrees.

"It is a safe haven for an infant, who without this resource could be placed in a trash can, be placed in an area that could be fatal," she said.

Officials work with the non-profit Gloria M. Silverio Foundation, which helps maintain a

Web site

and confidential 24-hour toll-free hotline at 1-877-767-BABY (2229).

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