When Samuel Forrest saw his newborn son for the first time, he thought he was perfect.
Forrest's son Leo was born with Down syndrome on Jan. 21 in Armenia, a country where parents are able to choose whether they want to keep children with disabilities or send them to an orphanage.
Leo's mother made the decision to give up her child, without consulting Forrest, he told ABC News. When she learned of her husband's plans to keep Leo, she filed for divorce, he said.
ABC News contacted the mother, who confirmed that she gave birth to a baby with Down syndrome and divorced her husband, but declined to share more details.
"This really came out of the blue for me," Forrest told ABC.
"I don’t have a lot, I have very little in fact. The goal is to raise enough for a year so I can get a part-time job so Leo doesn't have to be in daycare and I can help care for him. He's lost a lot in two weeks. It'd be different if he had his mommy."
To help raise money, Forrest set up a GoFundMe with a goal of $60,000 to bring his son to his native New Zealand. Ten days in the campaign far surpassed that goal, raising $409,632 as of this writing.