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27th July 2023
01:22pm BST
Credit: Getty Images[/caption]
Gisele then needed a foster family quickly in hopes she could get back on track but after five months at the hospital and not one visitor, it was soon became an even more heartbreaking story.
While social services had been trying to place her in a home, they were having no luck so Liz told herself: "I’m going to foster this baby. I’m going to be her mother."
She told The Boston Globe that she had always wanted to be a mum and it was her own mum who had inspired her to be become a nurse.
After losing her mum to cancer when she was 19, Liz wanted to honour her memory by living a selfless life.
As she entered her 40s and there as no sign of becoming a mum, Gisele changed everything for her.
“Since the moment I met her, there was something behind her striking blue eyes capturing my attention,” she said. “I felt that I needed to love this child and keep her safe.”
After putting in the request to foster the little girl and waiting for the paperwork to process, she would visit everyday and after three long weeks, she could call herself Gisele's mum.
“I was excited but nervous, realizing that I was committing everything I had to this child who might not be in my life forever,” she said.
At the beginning, Gisele's birth parents were given weekly supervised visits but were deemed incapable of caring for their child and their parental rights were terminated.
Knowing her gain was another's loss, Liz was aware of how hard becoming Gisele's mum was for her birth family – but has spent each day ensuring her daughter is getting all the help she needs to thrive.
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