Life has a funny way of surprising us when we least expect it. We map out our futures with careful precision, only to find ourselves standing at crossroads we never saw coming—facing moments that change everything.
For Liz Smith, a 45-year-old nursing director at Franciscan Children’s hospital in Brighton, Massachusetts, motherhood had always felt just out of reach. She’d watched her siblings and close friends walk down the aisle, welcome babies, build families. She wanted that too. Deep in her bones, she knew she’d make an incredible mom—perhaps even as devoted and warm-hearted as her own late mother had been. After her parents split when she was nineteen, Smith remembers how her mother created a home that practically glowed with happiness and love.
“Mom was a pediatric nurse who constantly put everyone else first,” Smith explained. “Watching her inspired me to follow the same path.”
Ask any of Smith’s thirteen nieces and nephews, and they’ll tell you: Aunt Liz is the absolute best. Her sister Elly doesn’t hesitate to describe her as a natural caregiver—someone who was born to nurture. If anyone deserved to be a mother, it was Liz.
Smith had considered in vitro fertilization as a possibility, but the reality was harsh: her insurance wouldn’t touch the cost, and paying out of pocket was financially impossible. Despite the ache of wanting a child, adoption and fostering had never seriously crossed her mind—that is, until she locked eyes with eight-month-old Gisele, a tiny girl with piercing blue eyes and a face like an angel.
Liz Smith pictured with daughter Gisele, who was nine months old when she finally left the hospital for good.
The first encounter happened in a hospital hallway. Smith spotted a nurse guiding a wheelchair, and inside sat this beautiful baby. “Who’s this little angel?” Smith asked. The answer—”Her name is Gisele”—echoed in her mind long after. She couldn’t shake the image of that single soft brown curl framing the baby’s face.
Gisele had arrived at Smith’s hospital at just three months old. Born too early in July 2016, she’d weighed a heartbreaking two pounds. Her breathing was compromised—the painful consequence of her biological mother’s drug use during pregnancy. The baby relied on a feeding tube to survive. Most devastating of all? In five entire months at the hospital, not one person had come to visit her.
That’s when Smith discovered that Massachusetts social services was desperately searching for a foster home for Gisele. Something clicked into place. This woman who’d yearned for motherhood for so long suddenly saw her answer. “I’m going to foster this baby,” she decided right then. “I’m going to be her mom.”
“I never thought becoming a mother would be this hard,” Smith reflected. “It’s not the kind of longing you can ignore or bury under distractions. It stays with you.”
“From that first moment, something about those striking blue eyes pulled me in,” she continued. “I felt this overwhelming need to love this child and protect her.”
“She was developmentally delayed, and I just wanted to get her out of those hospital walls and help her flourish,” Smith remembered.
By April 2017, Smith received approval to bring Gisele home. But there was a catch: the state made it clear they’d pursue reunification with the biological parents first.
“Driving away from that hospital parking lot, my car packed with baby supplies and Gisele in the backseat, I couldn’t believe it was real,” Smith said.
She took leave from work to focus entirely on her new daughter. The response from loved ones was overwhelming—friends and family rallied around Smith’s choice, throwing her a baby shower and filling her home with everything an infant could need.
“I was thrilled but terrified,” she admitted. “I was pouring my whole heart into this child, knowing she might not stay forever.”
The biological parents received weekly supervised visits, but eventually, the state concluded they couldn’t provide adequate care. Their parental rights were severed, opening the door for Smith to pursue legal adoption.
“Getting that call about the termination was bittersweet,” she said. “My dream was coming true because someone else’s was falling apart. It’s impossible to fully describe—being in the middle of this life-altering moment while knowing another family is experiencing the opposite. At its core, it’s heartbreaking for them.”
With boundless love from Smith and her brother Phil, Gisele made remarkable strides. By fifteen months, she was walking and speaking her first words—’badoon’ was her adorable attempt at ‘balloon.’
October 18, 2017 marked the official day they became mother and daughter. It was the happiest day either of them had ever known.
“This is the mother-daughter bond my sister has dreamed about for years,” said Phil Smith, 44. “You can see it clearly—they’ve completed each other.”
Now two years old, Gisele still needs a supplemental feeding tube, but her days overflow with giggles and joy. She’s crazy about cheese and pizza, and she’s grown into the sweetest little girl.
“Her current favorite song is ‘You Are My Sunshine,'” Smith shared. “Every time she sings it, I think to myself, ‘If only you knew.'”
It’s a beautiful ending for both Smith and Gisele—two souls who found exactly what they needed in each other.