A reason to be thankful
Moms grateful to be parents of first baby surrendered in Baby Box
Andy Brosig/News-Sun
For a time, two years ago, he was arguably the most-known baby in Lea County.
Dubbed only Baby John Doe at the time, he was the first infant surrendered via the then just weeks-old Safe Haven Baby Box, located at Hobbs Fire Department Station No. 1 on White Street.
He was left in the secure, climate-controlled enclosure in the early afternoon of Sept. 23, 2023, triggering a chain of events leading here, to Thanksgiving and to a happy, healthy family for Jonah Borjas, 2, and his moms, Rubi and Melody Borjas.
Rubi and Melody were already licensed foster parents with the New Mexico Children, Youth and Families Department when Baby John Doe’s situation came to light. Almost as soon as they heard the news, Rubi and Melody texted their CYFD placement worker — a person in the department responsible for coordinating foster placements for kids in need — saying they wanted to be the ones to care for him.
“I don’t think anyone knew what the next step would be,” Melody said. “We just prayed about it and we knew we wanted him to be ours.”
New Mexico Sen. David Gallegos, R-Eunice, was a driving force in securing the Safe Haven Baby Box in Hobbs. He said the most rewarding part was seeing the process work, from surrender to foster care to, now, Jonah’s adoption into a loving home.
“Not only did we provide (the birth) mother with an option, but to be able to see that whole process work,” Gallegos said. “It was good to see that whole process … to go from the Baby Box to actually having Jonah in a loving family environment.
“You can understand the value to what we do here in the state, just to know we’ve done something to provide an optoin that gives this child a chance at a successful life. New Mexico is known for everything negative (but) this gives us a chance to say we’ve done something positive.”
When the Borjas first made the decision to bring Jonah into their home, they were venturing into virtually unknown territory, they said. That which turned out to be the biggest challenge they faced during the process, they said. Nobody really knew for sure what was going to happen next, Melody said, because the baby was the first case of a Safe Haven Baby Box being used to surrender a child in the state.
“I think the fostering part was easy, since we’d been fostering for about a year before we got him,” Rubi said.
This is actually Jonah’s second holiday season in his new home. But this one is special, Melody and Rubi said, because his adoption was finalized just shy of three weeks ago, on Nov. 7.
Jonah “was in the foster system for 777 days,” Rubi said. “He’s been with us for 772 days. And that’s only because the first five days (after he was surrendered) he was in the hospital.”
And that’s literally all they know about Jonah’s history. No one knows who surrendered him or why, they said.
“All we know is he was born healthy, no exposure to drugs,” Rubi said.
“He was a full-term baby,” Melody added.
One thing that did surprise the women is how little negative feedback they received, wanting to adopt Jonah into a non-traditional family.
“Considering we’re two females in this position, we didn’t get a lot of negativity, negative backlash,” Rubi said. “That’s always our worry, but it was pretty smooth, considering.”
Rubi and Melody became foster parents in 2022, about a year before Jonah came into their lives. In that time, they’ve fostered probably a dozen kids, they said, some for fairly short terms and others for longer.
That’s the toughest part of being foster parents — knowing when they walk through the door, the children they care for can be taken out of their home and reunited with their families at just about any time, they said. And that was a concern they shared about Jonah for the more than two years since he first came to live with them, Rubi and Melody said.
“As long as we know we’re helping them, can see a positive change in them, that’s why we do this,” Melody said. “Emotionally, it’s very hard at time. But the ultimate goal is to show any kid love when they come into our home.”
It gives them a lot to think about and to be grateful for on this day of all days of the year — Thanksgiving.
“I’m thankful he’s legally ours, not having that burden,” Melody said. “He’s been our son since day one and we’re proud of him.
“Now we can show him off, this amazing son we have,” she said. “It’s something I’m very grateful for.”
At the start, Rubi and Melody were discouraged by CYFD from even giving Jonah a name. The reason was two-fold, they said — less confusion for Jonah if he was eventually adopted by someone else and to give them an emotional buffer, in case he was removed from the home to go to a different family.
But that’s all a moot point now, Rubi said.
“The biggest thing I’m thankful for is actually, you know, a person now,” she said. “He’s not just Baby John Doe.”
Gallegos, too, is thankful, not just for Jonah’s new life, but for the other three children who’ve been surrendered via the Baby Box. Without it, the only other outcome he could foresee would be four young lives cut short.
“To see it happening and to know the other option for (Jonah) was to be buried at the Eunice cemetery, that breaks my heart,” Gallegos said. “Without this (Baby Box), it’s only devastation.
“I said early on all it was going to take for me to feel satisfied (helping bring the Baby Box to Lea County) is one life saved. We’ve got four. To me, there’s value in the fight.”
Going forward, for now, Rubi and Melody spend most of their time chasing a very active, talkative 2-year-old around their home and loving him the best they know how. But what about the future and Jonah’s past? There’s really no question in Rubi and Melody’s mind how to answer the inevitable questions that will arise when Jonah is old enough to wonder and ask them.
“We’re going to tell him the truth,” Melody said. “That’s his story.
