Gisele had been born prematurely… and given up, and left all alone for the hospital to deal with. One day, Liz Smith, who is director of nursing at Franciscan Children’s Hospital in Brighton, Massachusetts, was walking toward an elevator when little Giselle caught her eye. She was 8 months old now and being wheeled to another area of the hospital.
Liz was struck by her big blue eyes and brown curl of hair. “Who’s this beautiful angel?” she asked the nurse, who replied that she was a ward of the state, and had been at the hospital there for quite awhile.
Liz had never seen her before. Turns out, no one really had. The little girl was all alone, with not one person visiting her. She had been born at another hospital, weighing not even 2 pounds, and was transferred to Franciscan when she was 3 months old for specialized lung care. Her mother had used heroin, cocaine and meth during her pregnancy, and decided her baby was just not worth it. Social workers were trying to find a home for the little girl, but nobody seemed to want baby Gisele.
While Liz was driving home that evening, she started thinking about Gisele, and kept saying her name over and over again to herself, almost as if she had already developed an attachment to the little girl. And maybe she had. Liz had watched all her siblings grow, age and most of them become parents… but life just never led her down that path. She was always satisfied with being an aunt to her 13 nieces and nephews. But now, something was going on inside Liz that had been virtually quiet before. It was a rumbling of sorts… that feeling you get when you KNOW you have to do something in your life… when you have to grab hold of that missing piece… and make everything right.
So the next day, she did it. She put in a request to foster Gisele, visiting her every single day. And three weeks later, in April of 2017, her request was granted, and Liz took Gisele home. And later, after all parental rights for Gisele’s father and birth mother were terminated, Liz started the adoption process.
She felt sad for Gisele’s mother and father, but not once had they or anyone else from their families come to see that precious little girl while she was struggling so hard to stay alive in that hospital. Not once did they show they cared. Not once did they offer her love and a promise to take care of her. So last October, in a Massachusetts courtroom, Liz officially became a mother.
Gisele is now 2 years old and loves cheese, avocados and pizza. She’s extremely happy and very loving. And every now and then she will just burst into song. And the song she sings to Liz, her mother, is “You Are My Sunshine.”
And I can’t think of any other song… more appropriate.
