Watch Eva Goeb’s Priceless Shock After Secret Adoption Of Granddaughter Is Revealed, Plus Backstory [Video]
Eva Goeb of Franklin, Indiana, got an exciting, unexpected visit from her son and daughter-in-law, but her priceless reaction had nothing to do with the spontaneous visit and everything to do with their adoption surprise. Miranda and Donny Goeb had been a dual U.S. Air Force couple since 2008, but Miranda got out in September with plans to start a family through adoption. In October, the couple started the adoption process, but they didn’t tell Eva Goeb that she had a new granddaughter.
“We hid our secret for almost 10 days before we could fly home,” Miranda said.
The Goebs adopted Melissa Faith from the acquaintance of someone that Donny Goeb had been deployed with in the past, WTHRreported. The Goebs nicknamed their daughter Lily. On November 12, the Goebs learned they would be able to adopt her. On November 25, they met the birth mother of the little girl, who would be named Melissa Faith Goeb. On December 8, Lily was born. They had kept the adoption process a secret to spare the feelings of their family, just in case they weren’t able to adopt her for some reason.
“We chose not to tell our families due to so many unknowns,” Miranda Goeb explained. “We wanted to protect our hearts and theirs. We were taking a huge leap of faith. Once the baby Lily was officially placed with us, to become our daughter, we decided that it was not the type of news to be shared over the phone.”
Over the holidays, not wanting to break the big news to Eva Goeb over the telephone, they made a surprise visit to her house in Franklin for the holidays.
“Neither of our families thought we were coming home for Christmas, let alone bringing a baby,” Miranda explained. A surprise visit home would have been enough to warrant elation for Eva Goeb, but a surprise adoption put her emotions over the top, like the video clearly indicates.
“They were shocked, enamored, in awe and in love simultaneously,” Miranda Goeb explained of the family’s reaction to their new baby Lily.
The Goeb’s had posted on Facebook in October that they were ready to start a family by adoption and say on their recently established GoFundMe page that they “prayerfully considered for a long time.”
“In turn, we asked people to share our story with anyone they knew that may be looking for adoptive parents. We were in luck! The wife of an old Air Force buddy of Donny’s (stationed together in Texas, Germany, Iraq, and Qatar together) contacted us with a possible lead. We were able to contact the birth mother, and after getting to know us…… she chose us! She has blessed us in more ways than one and has a forever place in our hearts and our family.”
The adoption process cost the couple more than 30,000 dollars. Most of that they borrowed.
“Even if this gofundme results in only $10 we will be thankful for the support! if you choose to leave/send us your address we want to send you a Thank You from all of us.”
The Goebs adoption visit, the couple says, included home study visits, applications, and personal statements. Unexpected costs accrued after the birth bother unexpectedly delivered Lily in a different state than they had planned.
“This was a terrifying situation because we no longer had a hospital adoption plan, a second agency to facilitate the adoption in the new state, or a way to finance the extra cost of a second agency. God saw us through in ways we could have never thought to ask or consider. We were able to find an amazing agency, Mother Goose Adoptions, out of Scottsdale, AZ (who worked VERY hard for us to make it work). Additionally, we were able to find a credit union that specializes in adoption loans to finance the extra costs and worked out our loan at the last minute.”
The Goeb’s families knew they had been planning to adopt, of course, but they had no idea that the adoption was successful.
“We decided to keep the placement a secret from our families because adoption placements can fail. We didn’t want to tell them they had a granddaughter too soon only to have to painfully recant our announcement. We also did not want to share the happy news over the phone. The adoption process is extremely emotionally charged and made us feel more vulnerable than we ever have been in our lives.”
Danny Goeb says that watching the family, like Eva Goeb, react to the new baby’s arrival was something they will never forget. He says that Lily was loved before the family even knew she existed.
In the video, Eva Goeb can be heard, excitedly asking from the distance as she walked a corridor and rounded the corner, “When did you get here??”
When Eva sees a tiny baby waiting for her, she realized the couple had gone through the adoption process and she went from happy to overwhelmed and overjoyed, according to the Daily Mail.
Eva is heard telling Donny and Melissa, “I have been dreaming that it was a girl!”
Another adoption surprise video making its way around the internet is a video of three foster children receiving their adoption papers on Christmas. Like Eva’s reaction to the adoption of her granddaughter, the reaction of the former foster children is also highly emotional.
Watch the emotional moment three foster kids receive adoption papers for Christmas https://t.co/5UutNP1c3Q pic.twitter.com/Ap2PqrJanx
— People magazine (@people) December 26, 2015
If you enjoyed these stories, head over to Twitter and look back through other sweet adoption stories. In November, people shared their heartwarming stories using the hashtag #SweetestAdoptionMoments.
https://t.co/YPpR7ZRInG Do you have a sweet adoption moment? Share using the hashtag #SweetestAdoptionMoments! pic.twitter.com/zyTZ1eyLTw
— Adoption.com (@adoption) November 3, 2015
An earlier story in the Inquisitr examined what has been called “the adoption paradox” through a new lens, explaining that, when you consider specific disabilities that are sometimes found in children who have been adopted, children who have been been given a second chance through adoption are actually thriving, not faltering, in their adoptive homes.
