Kelly Lively (right) adopted baby Marcus (left) when he was 13-months-old and she said she knew he was her son when she saw him
A baby who was born three months premature and was abandoned in a hospital is now thriving after he was adopted by a nurse in Indiana.
Marcus Lively weighed just one pound and was born to a heroin-addicted mother.
He had serious heard and lung complications at the time of his birth and a ventilator and tracheotomy tube helped him to breathe and eat.
He had been abandoned at a hospital was then taken to a medical facility where he received care.
However things took a positive turn for the brave toddler after a lady named Kelly Lively heard about his tragic story.
Lively, 56, works as a nurse and was volunteering with sick children when she overheard a case worker talk about Marcus' case.
She immediately knew she wanted to meet him after being struck by the youngster's plight.
Mother and son met for the first time in February 2017 at a medical facility in Shelbyville where Marcus was being treated through the Indiana Department of Child Services.
A few months later, he left the center to live with Lively in her home on the south side of Kokomo. In December, Lively, 56, officially adopted Marcus as her child.
She told Kokomo Tribune: 'He smiled so big when I kissed his cheek, and I knew I was going to do everything I could to give this baby a chance.
Baby Marcus was born three months prematurely to a heroin-addicted mother and weighed just one pounds. He has several medical conditions and needs a ventilator to breathe
'In my heart, I felt he had just been waiting for me. It gave me chills. I knew he was my son.'
Marcus was 18-months-old when he came home to live Lively. At that time he could barely lift his head or hold anything and his eyes couldn’t focus.
He also never wanted to be touched, having spent more than a year in a medical facility where he was accustomed to little human interaction.
Before he came to live with Lively, doctors said Marcus only had a 30% chance he would live to see his second birthday.
But Lively claimed: 'He’s beat the odds. He’s been so successful. Marcus is truly a miracle. The doctors have said the same thing.
'They said, "Whatever you are doing for this child, keep doing it." They can’t believe it.'
Lively claimed she wanted to find joy again after nursing her mother through cancer and she had lost her father eight years previously.
She traveled to Florida to volunteer with the Make A Wish Foundation to take care of medically fragile children.
She was at a house where she was caring for a terminally ill child, who was being overseen by the Department of Child Services.
She then overheard the child’s case
