Amy and Todd, of Oklahoma, were getting ready to head out on a Thanksgiving trip with family in 2015 when they got a frantic call from their fostering agency, asking them to come to the facility immediately.
“When I got to the agency, they handed me a newspaper article,” Amy, 43, tells PEOPLE. The article told the story of an infant left at a Tulsa clinic, wrapped in a blanket with its umbilical cord still attached. “They said, ‘He’s yours. He’s waiting for you.’ We were so surprised that he was the one.”
The story of the abandoned baby made local news headlines at the time, and it was actually Todd, 40, who initially told Amy about the newborn.
“He was wrapped in a gray towel and just came to the back door and knocked,” Amy recalls of the story. “She said she couldn’t care for him and that she was homeless. She handed him over to a nurse.”
(Under the state’s Safe Haven Law, a woman can leave a baby up to 3 days old with an employee at a medical facility, police or fire station without facing prosecution, according to KOTV.)
Amy says she never imagined that the little baby on her local news would eventually be part of her own family.
“We ended up spending the next week with him in the and then he came home,” she tells PEOPLE. “We went through the whole adoption process, it had its ups and downs, but we made it through and a year later he was officially ours.”
She adds: “He’s just thriving. He’s a great little boy.”
Amy, who identified the now-2-year-old boy simply as “W,” says the toddler is the perfect addition to their large family. Amy and Todd have seven children and the doting mom referred to the clan as “the Brady Bunch.” But, even with such a full house, Amy says it’s W who rules the roost.
“We call him the little tornado. He is just a spunky little dude,” she gushes of the boy to PEOPLE. “He’s full of life and happy. He’s a really healthy, happy little boy. He’s done very well for his beginnings.”
The family shares updates on the toddler through their Facebook page, Through My Eyes. The account features photos, articles and update posts, all shedding light on what life is now like for the toddler once called “Baby Boy Unknown.”
“I love everything about him. I love his curly hair,” Amy says. “I love his eyes. I love his smile. He’s really just a burst of sunshine. He’s just happy. He lights up the room.”