She remembered holding him, having skin-to-skin contact and worrying that he might not remember her.
Instead of confirming her fears, meeting Leo again strengthened the bond she had once feared she could not manage.
She realized she wanted to be his mother.
The Divorce Was Cancelled
The original international story suggested that Samuel and Ruzan's marriage was over.
It wasn't.
They reconciled.
Samuel later said Ruzan cancelled the divorce before it became final.
The couple then made plans to leave Armenia together.
Rather than Samuel moving to New Zealand as a single father, Samuel, Ruzan and Leo relocated there as a family.
By June 2015, reports from Armenian and New Zealand media confirmed that all three were living in New Zealand.
The ending was dramatically different from what many readers of the first viral headlines had expected.
The father had not abandoned his son.
But ultimately, neither had the mother.
Ruzan came back.
"Don't Judge"
Returning to Leo did not immediately end the criticism Ruzan faced.
By then, her initial decision had been reported internationally.
Thousands of strangers had formed opinions about a woman they had never met, often based largely on Samuel's original account.
Ruzan asked people not to judge her without understanding the situation she had experienced.
She did not pretend that her initial response was ideal.
In later interviews, she openly acknowledged being afraid and overwhelmed.
She also rejected suggestions that she had returned simply because Samuel's fundraising campaign had collected hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Samuel defended her as well.
He said the money raised for Leo had been placed in a trust and emphasized that Ruzan's return should be understood as a significant personal change rather than reduced to financial motives.
Most importantly, the couple attempted to move beyond the public controversy and focus on their child.
One Year Later
By Leo's first birthday in January 2016, the family looked very different from the one portrayed in the original headlines.
Samuel and Ruzan were together in New Zealand.
And Leo was developing.
Samuel told ABC News that his son was generally happy and had a sense of humor.
Leo was receiving support aimed at his physical and intellectual development.
He was crawling, interacting with his environment, pushing buttons and beginning to make early attempts at words.
The New Zealand Herald similarly reported around his first birthday that Leo could sit independently and was beginning to show signs of talking.
For Ruzan, watching her son grow directly challenged the frightening picture she had initially been given.
The baby whose future had once terrified her was becoming a little boy with his own personality.
She told ABC News that she could no longer imagine life without him.
That may be the most important transformation in the entire story.
More Than a Story About One Father's Choice
Samuel Forrest's decision deserves recognition.
At a moment of uncertainty, he looked at his newborn son and decided immediately that Leo belonged with him.
He was prepared to restructure his entire life around that decision.
He was prepared to move countries.
He was prepared, if necessary, to become a single parent.
And he publicly challenged the idea that a child with Down syndrome should automatically be treated as a tragedy.
But reducing the story only to "father chooses baby over wife" misses much of what happened afterward.