"He truly captured my heart," says Angela Farnan of baby Blaze.
When pediatric nurse Angela Farnan met baby Blaze while working in an Illinois hospital, it was love at first sight.
"He truly captured my heart," she told Inside Edition.
Now, the 53-year-old and her husband have adopted the little boy, after his parents felt they could not care for him.
Farnan, who works in the ICU at Children's Hospital in Peoria, said she has cared for thousands of infants during her 32 years on the job. "I treat every child like they're mine," she said.
So when little Blaze, who was born with a rare heart condition came to the hospital, she was there to care for him, and as he recovered from the first of his two heart surgeries, a bond began to form.
"I did find myself drawn to coming down here as much as I could," she said.
Cynthia Read, a pediatric nurse practitioner who works with Farnan, said she noticed it too.
"When she had a down moment here or there she'd be in there holding him or rocking him or feeding him, taking care of him," she said.
But after Blaze's second surgery, his biological parents wondered if they were equipped to care for him, and they asked Farnan and her husband, Rick, if they would consider adopting the little boy.
"You look at him and you fall in love with him," Rick Farnan said. "I don't know when it happened. I don't know if it was a week in or a month in. I don't remember the time but I knew I loved him."
His wife added, "I thank God every night for allowing me to be his mom."
Blaze will need one more surgery before he turns 5, but doctors say his prognosis is good.
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