"Baby Girl" CHRISTIANSON - Newborn - Kent WA

A mother who abandoned her newborn baby on a cold set of church steps dodged jail time when she was sentenced Friday.

A judge gave Sarah Christianson a two-year deferred sentence for child
abandonment. She has to perform 200 hours of community service and
continue counseling.

From the outset, prosecutors said they didn't want to put Christianson behind bars. They say she was a
confused woman who did a terrible thing with the best intentions.

Last September, a surveillance camera captured her walking up to the front
of a church in Federal Way, then setting a baby in a corner. A
parishioner found the infant the next morning and called police.

Christianson originally hid her pregnancy, then gave birth alone, outside her apartment.

She came forward when media attention focused on finding the mother.

"I can't tell you how much I regret that decision and how sorry I truly
am," she said in court Friday. "But I can tell you how thankful I am
that despite all of that, I'm still able to see her and be a part of
her life."

The baby girl is now in the custody of the grandmother, who lives in Auburn. Christianson has limited visitation rights.

A state law gives reluctant parents 72-hours to surrender their babies at
hospitals or staffed fire stations without prosecution. The punishment
for abandoning a child is up to a year in jail.