BabySafeHaven
02-09-2004, 06:16 AM
WONDERFUL story! And great picture! Baby Safe Haven laws do work, and this
is the living evidence.
Jean
~~~~~~~~~~
FLORIDA
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/local/states/florida/counties/br
oward_county/7908593.htm
Posted on Mon, Feb. 09, 2004
FORT LAUDERDALE
Permanent haven: Abandoned baby finds home
BY ELINOR J. BRECHER
ebrecher@herald.com
LOOK AT THAT: Gloria Hope Lewis, held up to the mirror by
soon-to-be-parents Lori and Michael Lewis, likes what she sees. MARIANNE
ARMSHAW/FOR THE HERALD
The call came soon after Lori and Michael Lewis returned from their North
Carolina vacation home, tired after a long drive with three little kids.
It was June 13, 2003: Father's Day. Kids in Distress needed emergency placement
for a newborn left that morning at a Deerfield Beach firehouse.
The Lewises, of Fort Lauderdale, were used to such calls. Married three years,
they were caring for two sisters and a boy: all preschoolers.
' `This one is different,' '' Lori said the social worker told her. `` `She's
pre-adoption. I want you to have her.'
``I fell to my knees. Then [the social worker] showed up with Baby Gloria and
six pink roses.''
On Tuesday, the baby whom the firefighters named Hope and the Lewises named
Gloria legally becomes their daughter: Gloria Hope Lewis.
So does Erika Lynn, 4, whose last name and picture can't be revealed until the
adoption, at the Broward County Courthouse, is final. She's been with the
Lewises since last April.
Her sister lives with another family. The boy, 4, remains with the Lewises.
''Sisters for Life,'' reads the adoption-day announcements that the Lewises
sent to friends. The girls are smiling, in matching green dresses.
They bear uncanny resemblances to their new parents: Erika is dark-haired,
dark-eyed and olive-skinned like Michael. Gloria, who has strawberry-blonde
peach fuzz, is blue-eyed and fair, like Lori.
The moment will be especially sweet for Nick Silverio. He established a
foundation in memory of his late wife to publicize the Florida law that
shielded Gloria Hope's biological mother from prosecution for abandonment.
The law enables parents to leave infants up to three days old at hospitals,
fire and paramedic stations anonymously.
The Gloria M. Silverio Foundation's ''Safe Haven for Newborns'' program
promotes the law statewide, and has been credited with saving 18 babies since
Nick Silverio, a Palmetto Bay software developer, launched it in 2000.
That the Father's Day baby ended up with his late wife's name is a happy
coincidence.
''I always said if I had a daughter, I'd name her after my mom, Gloria,''
herself a foster child, according to Lori, 38, who suffered several
miscarriages in a previous marriage. ''We didn't meet Nick'' until they'd named
the baby.
``She was meant to be ours.''
BIOLOGICAL MOTHER
Silverio calls the Lewises ''wonderful people.'' They met when he gave them
letters from Gloria Hope's biological mother: one for them; one for Gloria
Hope.
The Safe Haven law ``worked exactly as intended . . . We won't stop until
babies are no longer abandoned in Dumpsters and canals.''
Michael, 43, an interior contractor who grew up Jewish in Hallandale and Lori,
a Wisconsin-born Lutheran mortgage broker, are the first Safe Haven adoptive
parents to go public, because they feel as strongly about the law's benefits as
about the need for more foster homes.
''I spread the word in every home I go into to recruit foster parents and I
tell the Baby Gloria story,'' said Michael, the son of an unmarried teenager,
raised by grandparents. ``It's awareness.''
Lori: ``There should be no reason for people to go overseas to adopt. Any child
saved is a beautiful thing . . . Once you're pregnant, there's no turning back.
Life is a better choice . . . but you have to evaluate the pressures of being a
parent. Until you're really ready, there is the choice of adoption.''
ONLY PRAISE
The Lewises have only praise for Gloria Hope's biological mother.
'We'll tell Gloria that her `tummy mommy' is a wonderful person who made a
decision at a time in her life when she couldn't raise her,'' Lori said. ``Our
children are blessed because they have two mommies and two daddies. We are
blessed because we get to raise them.''
The Lewises have had nine foster children together. Lori took her first one 12
years ago.
Lori said they speak at foster-parent training classes and ``shared with Kids
in Distress that we'd love to adopt [a foster child] but we were never on an
adoption list. That's why it's even more of a miracle.''
is the living evidence.
Jean
~~~~~~~~~~
FLORIDA
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/local/states/florida/counties/br
oward_county/7908593.htm
Posted on Mon, Feb. 09, 2004
FORT LAUDERDALE
Permanent haven: Abandoned baby finds home
BY ELINOR J. BRECHER
ebrecher@herald.com
LOOK AT THAT: Gloria Hope Lewis, held up to the mirror by
soon-to-be-parents Lori and Michael Lewis, likes what she sees. MARIANNE
ARMSHAW/FOR THE HERALD
The call came soon after Lori and Michael Lewis returned from their North
Carolina vacation home, tired after a long drive with three little kids.
It was June 13, 2003: Father's Day. Kids in Distress needed emergency placement
for a newborn left that morning at a Deerfield Beach firehouse.
The Lewises, of Fort Lauderdale, were used to such calls. Married three years,
they were caring for two sisters and a boy: all preschoolers.
' `This one is different,' '' Lori said the social worker told her. `` `She's
pre-adoption. I want you to have her.'
``I fell to my knees. Then [the social worker] showed up with Baby Gloria and
six pink roses.''
On Tuesday, the baby whom the firefighters named Hope and the Lewises named
Gloria legally becomes their daughter: Gloria Hope Lewis.
So does Erika Lynn, 4, whose last name and picture can't be revealed until the
adoption, at the Broward County Courthouse, is final. She's been with the
Lewises since last April.
Her sister lives with another family. The boy, 4, remains with the Lewises.
''Sisters for Life,'' reads the adoption-day announcements that the Lewises
sent to friends. The girls are smiling, in matching green dresses.
They bear uncanny resemblances to their new parents: Erika is dark-haired,
dark-eyed and olive-skinned like Michael. Gloria, who has strawberry-blonde
peach fuzz, is blue-eyed and fair, like Lori.
The moment will be especially sweet for Nick Silverio. He established a
foundation in memory of his late wife to publicize the Florida law that
shielded Gloria Hope's biological mother from prosecution for abandonment.
The law enables parents to leave infants up to three days old at hospitals,
fire and paramedic stations anonymously.
The Gloria M. Silverio Foundation's ''Safe Haven for Newborns'' program
promotes the law statewide, and has been credited with saving 18 babies since
Nick Silverio, a Palmetto Bay software developer, launched it in 2000.
That the Father's Day baby ended up with his late wife's name is a happy
coincidence.
''I always said if I had a daughter, I'd name her after my mom, Gloria,''
herself a foster child, according to Lori, 38, who suffered several
miscarriages in a previous marriage. ''We didn't meet Nick'' until they'd named
the baby.
``She was meant to be ours.''
BIOLOGICAL MOTHER
Silverio calls the Lewises ''wonderful people.'' They met when he gave them
letters from Gloria Hope's biological mother: one for them; one for Gloria
Hope.
The Safe Haven law ``worked exactly as intended . . . We won't stop until
babies are no longer abandoned in Dumpsters and canals.''
Michael, 43, an interior contractor who grew up Jewish in Hallandale and Lori,
a Wisconsin-born Lutheran mortgage broker, are the first Safe Haven adoptive
parents to go public, because they feel as strongly about the law's benefits as
about the need for more foster homes.
''I spread the word in every home I go into to recruit foster parents and I
tell the Baby Gloria story,'' said Michael, the son of an unmarried teenager,
raised by grandparents. ``It's awareness.''
Lori: ``There should be no reason for people to go overseas to adopt. Any child
saved is a beautiful thing . . . Once you're pregnant, there's no turning back.
Life is a better choice . . . but you have to evaluate the pressures of being a
parent. Until you're really ready, there is the choice of adoption.''
ONLY PRAISE
The Lewises have only praise for Gloria Hope's biological mother.
'We'll tell Gloria that her `tummy mommy' is a wonderful person who made a
decision at a time in her life when she couldn't raise her,'' Lori said. ``Our
children are blessed because they have two mommies and two daddies. We are
blessed because we get to raise them.''
The Lewises have had nine foster children together. Lori took her first one 12
years ago.
Lori said they speak at foster-parent training classes and ``shared with Kids
in Distress that we'd love to adopt [a foster child] but we were never on an
adoption list. That's why it's even more of a miracle.''
