Twenty-two years ago Danny Stewart and Pete Mercurio were rushing to meet each other for dinner in New York City, when Stewart while waiting for his train on the subway and spotted something that caught his eye.

It was around 8 p.m. on August 28, 2000.

“I glanced back one more time, and that’s when I noticed his legs moved,” he told the BBC. The 34-year-old quickly ran back down the stairs and realized that what he thought to be a doll was in fact a baby boy, wrapped in a dark sweatshirt, with his tiny legs sticking out.

Stewart:

“He didn’t have any clothes on, he was just wrapped up in this sweatshirt. His umbilical cord was still partially intact, so I could tell he was a newborn. I was thinking maybe a day or so old. He did look up and I stroked his head and then he whimpered a little bit. It seemed really unreal, the whole situation, and at that point, I was trying to alert people to what was happening, but I couldn’t get anybody’s attention.”

He was hesitant to pick the baby up, afraid he might hurt him so he called 911 and waited for the police to arrive.

Mercurio:

“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.’ Danny was like, ‘What do you mean?’ I said, ‘Well, eventually, this child is going to learn of the night he was found and he may want to find the person who discovered him. Maybe there’s a way that we can find out where he ends up and send a birthday gift every year on this date?'”

The couple returned to their daily lives — Stewart to his role as a social worker and Mercurio as a playwright and web designer — Stewart received an invitation from the Administration for Children’s Services to attend a family court hearing, to testify how he had found the baby.

At the December 2000 hearing, the judge asked him if he could stay for the entire hearing. “And then the next thing out of her mouth was, ‘Would you be interested in adopting this baby?'” Stewart recalled. “I think most of the mouths dropped in the courtroom, including mine. I said, ‘Yes, but I don’t think it’s that easy,’ and the judge smiled and she said, ‘Well, it can be.'”

Stewart:

“I had not had thoughts of adopting. 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.”

Mercurio remembers an “instant wave of warmth” coming over him the first time he held the child in his arms. “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.” Stewart and Mercurio officially adopted the baby — whom they named Kevin — on December 17, 2002. A few years later, when Kevin was 10, the couple legally tied the knot after New York became the sixth state in the US to legalize gay marriage.

Kevin is now a 21-year-old college student who loves playing ultimate frisbee, has run numerous marathons, and danced with the National Dance Institute from the age of nine to 14. “Kevin’s always been a respectful kid,” Mercurio — who has written a children’s book about their family’s story called Our Subway Baby — gushed about his son. “He’s empathic and kind. He keeps his emotions close to the vest. He’s an observer, doesn’t crave or seek attention. He’s a private person, but also a quiet leader.”

Stewart — now aged 57 — added:

“I can’t imagine my life if it didn’t turn out this way. My life has become much more enriched and full. It has changed my world view, my perspective, my whole lens.”

Buy Our Subway Baby.

Via UpWorthy.