A joke at the fire station turned into something much bigger for Chris Martinez.

The New Mexico firefighter says he once half-joked that he wanted the first baby surrendered at his station under a new safe haven program. On Feb. 6, 2024, that happened at the Belen Fire Department, where a newborn boy was left in a baby box about four months after it was installed.

Now Martinez and his wife, Janae, have adopted that child, Mikel Gracen Martinez, after a year-long legal process that they say exposed problems in how New Mexico handles anonymous safe haven surrenders.

“I knew from the moment I saw him I wanted to be his dad,” Chris says.

Chris, 45, told PEOPLE the day began with a structure fire at about 1 a.m. He said his gear melted during the response, leaving him with burns to his ears and wrists, and he went to the hospital for treatment. A woman died in the fire.

After he returned to the station, another lieutenant told him a baby might have just been left in the station’s safe haven box, a temperature-controlled unit in a secluded spot on the side of the building.

Even though it was the afternoon by then, Chris said, “No one saw anyone.”

He said the box has a timer that gives someone leaving a newborn about a minute to leave “peacefully and remain anonymous.”

When firefighters opened the box, they found a newborn boy turning blue, with his umbilical cord still attached and in obvious distress. Chris said firefighters gave the baby oxygen, warmed him and took him to a local hospital.

The baby was treated in the neonatal intensive care unit for pneumonia, fluid in his lungs and a brain bleed, Chris said.

“He had five different drugs in his system and just a number of things,” Chris says to PEOPLE. “He had to stay in the hospital for almost two months.”

to PEOPLE Chris and Janae, 41, said they visited every day. The couple told PEOPLE they had spent about 15 years trying unsuccessfully to have a child. Around that time, they had just become certified as foster parents, which allowed them to care for the boy while they moved through the adoption process.

That process took about a year and, they said, was emotionally grueling because of New Mexico law.

According to the couple, state law requires a biological parent to identify themselves to authorities even if they use a safe haven baby box. The baby’s mother did not do that, they said.

Chris and Janae said notices were placed in local newspapers asking the birth parents to come forward. They also attended multiple court appearances while waiting for possible relatives who never came.

For the first year, Janae said, the boy had no legal name and was identified in documents as Baby Boy Doe.

She said even at the pediatrician, he was called in as Baby Boy Doe instead of Mikel, the name she and Chris wanted for him.

The name carries personal meaning for the couple. They said Mikel honors Chris’s brother, who died in 2012 at age 37. His middle name, Gracen, reflects what they describe as the grace of God in answering their prayers.

“He didn’t have an identity, he didn’t have a birth certificate, he didn’t have a Social Security card. He didn’t have anything for a whole year,” Janae says. “It was hard, people not calling him by his name. He’s not a nobody, he’s somebody. He’s a Martinez.”

The couple said New Mexico also required a DNA test, partly to determine if the child was indigenous because, in that case, the baby would have been given to their tribe.

“I don’t know what we would do at this time if the mother or relative showed up,” Janae remembers thinking. “I guess we’ll just cross that bridge if we ever come to it.”

No one from the child’s biological family came forward, and the adoption was finalised on March 10, 2025. Janae said the day was marked with a party attended by family and mariachis.

“It symbolized so much. We finally got to rest and finally, officially, be a family,” Janae says.

The couple said they decided to speak publicly because they want attention on what they see as gaps in New Mexico law. They said baby boxes are still new in the state, but that older protocols are still being used to try to identify parents who surrender newborns, even though anonymity is part of the safe haven program.

On Jan. 30, state Senator David Gallegos introduced a bill that would protect the privacy and anonymity of a mother who surrenders a child under the safe haven program, unless there are specific circumstances involving neglect or abuse. The proposal has stalled, but efforts are continuing, according to the report.

Janae said she is grateful to the woman who placed Mikey in the box.

“We thank the mother so much for making the bravest decision and I can’t even imagine. She wanted a better life for Mikey,” Janae says. “Just knowing that if he was not placed in that box, where would he be right now? That breaks my heart.”

Chris and Janae met in 2003. He was a local musician working side jobs, and she worked at a local radio station. She still hosts an afternoon program on KOB-FM. Both grew up in Albuquerque, came from large families and married in 2010.

Janae said learning she likely “would not be a mother” was “devastating.” She said the couple stopped fertility treatments and decided to become foster parents. Not long after, Mikey arrived at Chris’s station.

They said their parents live nearby and help with their son. Janae works three jobs, while Chris said he cut back to “just one” after a promotion in the fire department. They also continue to do short-term foster care.

Chris said he hopes to retire in about three years, while Janae expects to work about five more years.

“We were always just work, work, work,” Chris says. “But life is not all about working. It’s about relaxing and enjoying him [our son]. We are going to have so much fun.”