Danny Stewart couldn’t have imagined how finding a newborn in a New York City subway station–and the media circus that followed–would forever change him and his partner, Pete Mercurio. Now, 25 years later, the couple’s extraordinary journey to parenthood has been brought to life in 18 MONTHS, an animated short from nonprofit Second Nurture that celebrates all paths to family and challenges adoption stigma.
18 MONTHS unfolds as a metaphorical pregnancy, with the monumental personal, societal, and legal hurdles Stewart and Mercurio faced in adopting their now almost-25-year-old son, Kevin, reimagined to mirror the milestones of gestation. Set to Christina Perri’s stirring love song “A Thousand Years”–rerecorded as an emblematic duet that creates a thread between the biological and adoptive storylines, the stop-motion film features backgrounds meticulously crafted from actual pages of old pregnancy books, along with hand-sculpted puppets, 2D animation, CGI, and shadow projections. The credits include archival news footage and family photos.
“18 MONTHS is more than just our story–it’s a challenge to the way the world views adoption,” said Stewart, a social worker and Second Nurture board member. “Every family’s journey is unique,” added Mercurio, his husband of 13 years. “And love is what makes a family.”
Created by Klick Health and animated by Zombie Studio, with music by Jamute, the six-minute film seeks to ignite broader conversations around adoption, especially for LGBTQ+ families still facing outdated perceptions and legal barriers.
Zombie’s Paulo Garcia and Natalia Gouvea co-directed the short, with Matias Liebrecht serving as stop motion animation director.
Andrea Bistany, Klick Health group creative director, said, “The art direction in 18 MONTHS literally illustrates how outdated the ‘traditional’ family ideal is. By tearing up and repurposing pregnancy books, like Eastman’s Expectant Motherhood, that date back to the 1950s, we’re conveying a more inclusive, modern definition of family.”
Film co-creator and group creative director Amy Fortunato added, “There is a lingering belief that biological families are the only ‘real’ families, so the more we challenge this, the more we empower families to form in all their beautiful, varied forms. Pete and Danny’s story is an incredible example of how there is no wrong way to build a family. By partnering with Second Nurture on 18 MONTHS, we hope to spark stigma-free conversations about adoption and support foster and adoptive families across the country.”
