Liz Smith is the 45 year-old director of nursing at Franciscan Children’s hospital in Brighton, Massachusetts and she has always wanted to be a mother. She has always fondly remembered how much joy her own mother brought into her home when she was a child.

“My mom was a pediatric nurse who always put others first,” Liz said. “So I grew up wanting to be a nurse, too.”

Liz eventually wanted to try in vitro fertilization to have a child, but her health insurance wouldn’t cover the expensive treatment. She had never considered adoption until she met 8-month-old Gisele, a little girl with bright blue eyes and an angelic face.

Liz first met Gisele when one of the nurses at work was wheeling her down the hall. She remembers thinking “Who’s this beautiful angel?” and she immediately got the answer, “Her name is Gisele” ringing in her head. Gisele was born prematurely back in July 2016, and only weighted 2 pounds at birth, and she had experienced breathing issues because of her mother’s drug abuse during pregnancy. The little baby had been put on a feeding tube and she did not have a single visitor during those long five months she spent at the hospital.

Liz fell in love with Gisele right away, and she told herself, “I’m going to foster this baby. I’m going to be her mother.”

“I never imagined becoming a mom would be a challenge,” Liz explained. “It’s a desire you can try to push away and fill with other distractions, but it never goes away. Since the moment I met her, there was something behind her striking blue eyes capturing my attention. I felt that I needed to love this child and keep her safe. She was behind developmentally, and I wanted to get her out of the hospital and get her thriving.”

In April of 2017, Liz was finally allowed to take Gisele home. At the time, she was told that the state would do anything in their power to reunite the baby with her biological parents.

“Leaving the parking lot of the hospital with Gisele and a car full of baby stuff, I was in shock that it was happening,” she said.

Gisele’s biological parents were granted weekly supervision visits, but the state determined that they weren’t capable of taking further care of their biological daughter so their parental rights were terminated.

“The day I got the call that their parental rights were terminated was very sad,” she said. “My gain was another’s loss. It’s a feeling difficult to describe when you are experiencing this life-changing moment that someone else is as well, in the opposite way. The bottom line is: It’s devastating for another family.”

These days, Gisele and Liz are happier than ever!

“This is the mother-daughter relationship my sister has waited a long time for,” said Liz’s brother Phil. “It’s plain to see that they have brought a completeness to each other.”

“Her new favorite song is ‘You Are My Sunshine,’” added Liz. “And every time she sings it, I think to myself, ‘You have no idea.’”

Find out more about this amazing story in the video below!