When playwright Peter Mercurio answered the phone 12 years ago, he probably didn't realize the call would change his life.
On an August night in 2000, Mercurio received a phone call from his partner, David Stewart, who was at the Eighth Avenue A/C/E subway stop in New York City, recounts Mercurio in "We Found Our Son in the Subway," an op-ed for The New York Times.
“I found a baby!” Stewart yelled, according to Mercurio. “I called 911, but I don’t think they believed me. No one’s coming. I don’t want to leave the baby alone. Get down here and flag down a police car or something.”
When the couple appeared in family court that December to give their account of what happened, the judge overseeing the case asked if they'd be interested in adopting. Stewart, a social worker, replied "yes."
The judge's request for Mercurio and Stewart to stay during the family court hearing was unusual, according to an article about the adoption previously published in Parents magazine.
"I want to let you know what's going on. When we have an abandoned baby, we try to place him in a permanent home as quickly as possible," the judge said before asking about their interest, according to the magazine.
The judge later revealed she "had a hunch" that they'd want to adopt and took a chance, Mercurio writes. The two went on to become foster parents to baby Kevin, then legal parents and then married parents.
