By Dave Andrusko
Another blessing. Last Thursday, a Kentucky baby was found safe and healthy in a Safe Haven Baby Box installed in a Bowling Green First Department just a few months ago.
When the baby box was put in place last December, “It became the 16th Safe Haven Baby Box in Kentucky and the 132nd in the country,” according Katy Beth Boyers and Isaac Calvert .
“Safe Haven Baby Boxes says 24 infants have been placed in a Baby Box since Nov. 2017,” Boyers and Calvert added. “In 2022, eight newborns were surrendered via a Baby Box” [].
Thursday’s baby was the first of the year surrendered in Kentucky. The child is now in the custody of child protective services.
“This Baby Box location hasn’t been open for three months yet, but it was there when needed and that is the key,” said Monica Kelsey, Founder/CEO of Safe Haven Baby Box. “This baby is healthy, this baby is beautiful, this baby is perfect, and the Department of Child Services is now looking for a forever home.”
She added, “We know this infant was loved by their birth mother and will be quickly adopted by a family who has been eagerly awaiting a baby. We rejoice for the opportunity to make a positive outcome out of tough circumstances.”
During a Friday press conference, Kelsey made it clear that the baby was not abandoned, rather the mother was providing her child with the opportunity for a better life.
”This child was legally, safely, anonymously, and lovingly placed inside of this Safe Haven Baby Box,” said Kelsey. “We do not know who came here and surrendered this child, and that is the beauty of the baby box. The box allows 100% anonymity, and that is exactly what that parent received here.”
In 2021, Kentucky “passed a law allowing children under 30 days old to be anonymously surrendered at a “newborn safety device,” according to CNN. (PEOPLE magazine reported that “The child was pulled from the climate-controlled box about 90 seconds after being surrendered, according to Kelsey.”)
Kelsey said, “The law stipulates that all police stations, fire stations, or hospitals chosen as locations for the baby boxes are staffed around the clock.”