Outside a Louisiana courthouse, Roberta Bell embraced a toddler she hadn't seen in nearly two years, unaware that what she thought was a court-appointed visit was actually something much more significant.
"Oh, my baby. My baby – my little man," Bell said tearfully as she held Kayson, the child she had raised from birth two years ago when his mother was incarcerated.
Bell, a former correctional officer at Louisiana Women's Prison, had sacrificed her job to care for Kayson when his birth mother Katie, who was imprisoned at the time, asked her to take the child to prevent him from entering foster care, something her supervisor objected to.
"I said, 'if the hospital calls me to come get the baby, I'm going to get that baby.' And he said, 'Well, okay, I'm going to have to terminate you,'" Bell said.
Despite Bell's sacrifice, Kayson eventually ended up in foster care when his birth mother, after a brief reunion post-prison, returned to jail due to addiction issues.
"When I heard it, it just broke my heart because I had sacrificed to make sure that he would be taken care of," Bell said.
But Kayson's new foster parents, Skylar and Christian Moore, discovered that Bell had previously cared for the boy — and reached out to her.
"This was basically her baby. You know, she had him for the first couple months of his life and now she didn't know where he was," Skylar Moore said. "In my heart, I told my husband, I can't let her go to sleep another night, not knowing that he's safe."
What Bell didn't know when she arrived at the courthouse that morning was that the Moores had applied to adopt Kayson. Judge Jeffrey Cashe made the adoption official, with Bell as the guest of honor.
"My prayer was that he be put with somebody that's gonna love him as their own and take care of him," Bell said.
After the courtroom adoption, Bell expressed her approval of the Moores: "Oh, they're some beautiful people. They're very good people. My prayer was that he be put with somebody that's gonna love him as their own and take care of him."
Bell lives in Mississippi, about a 3½-hour drive from where Kayson will grow up, she works sorting cans at a processing plant—a job she found after being fired from the prison for her decision to care for the baby.
Christian Moore expressed deep gratitude toward Bell for her sacrifice.
"I'm so thankful for what she did, for what she sacrificed, and what she's pushing forward to do in the future for him," Christian Moore said.
The Moores plan to keep Bell in Kayson's life.
"There's no telling how many Christmases she'll pop up, birthdays, holidays ... I might just come home from work one day and boom, Ms. Bell is here," said Christian Moore.
David Begnaud loves uncovering the heart of every story and will continue to do so, highlighting everyday heroes and proving that there is good news in the news with his exclusive "CBS Mornings" series, "Beg-Knows America." Every Monday, get ready for moments that will make you smile or even shed a tear. Do you have a story about an ordinary person doing something extraordinary for someone else? Email David and his team at DearDavid@cbsnews.com
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