What happens when an abandoned baby grows up to protect the very streets where they were once left behind? In this deeply moving conversation, South Bend Police Officer Matthew Stewart shares his extraordinary journey from being the "newspaper baby" – abandoned in a cardboard box in an apartment complex breezeway on Christmas Eve 2000 – to becoming a guardian of his community.

Matthew's story unfolds with remarkable candor as he recounts how tenants heard his cries, leading to his rescue and subsequent adoption. The timing of his abandonment – just before Indiana implemented the Safe Haven Law in 2001 – highlights how different his story might have been had his teenage birth parents had access to safe surrender options like baby boxes. Born at home without medical care and kept for a week before being abandoned, Matthew's very survival seems miraculous.

The conversation takes an extraordinary turn as Matthew reveals how, during his police training, he discovered that the detective who investigated his abandonment case still worked with the department. This full-circle moment provided answers to questions he'd carried his entire life. With remarkable grace, Matthew shares his perspective on connecting with his birth parents and half-siblings, demonstrating forgiveness rather than resentment for the desperate circumstances that led to his abandonment.

Host Monica Kelsey, founder of Safe Haven Baby Boxes and an abandoned infant herself, creates a powerful space for authentic connection as they discuss shared experiences of adoption, identity, and finding purpose beyond difficult beginnings. Their conversation illuminates how two people once left behind have transformed potential tragedy into lives of service, family, and remarkable resilience.

South Bend PD

shbb.org

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