Roggensack kept in touch with the mother after her delivery, and found out the child would be put up for adoption. The mother had carried through with the pregnancy but knew from the beginning that she would not be able to keep the child even though she loved him, Roggensack said.
The child’s birth mother could not be reached for comment.
Coincidentally, Roggensack had family friends, Sara and Paul Wizniuk, who had been looking to adopt and expand their family. In addition to raising their own two daughters, the family had been fostering children for about a year and had all the paperwork ready to adopt, according to the family’s GoFundMe page.
The GoFundMe page, which was created to help with adoption expenses, met its goal within 24 hours of being created and has now raised nearly $16,000. The extra funds will go toward the baby’s medical treatments, Sara Wizniuk said in a post to the page.
The Wizniuks could not be reached for comment on this story.
Roggensack had kept in touch with the birth mother after the incident, who requested that the soldier become the baby’s godmother ― a request the Wizniuks supported. The baby was baptized in early July, with Roggensack as godmother.
Roggensack said she was glad she encountered this situation rather than someone who had a stroke or another medical emergency. Her experience working in postnatal care as a nurse allowed her muscle memory to kick in and help this mother and child, she said.
“She’s a professional in all aspects of the word,” Guzman said of Roggensack. “As a soldier, as a nurse, as a person, she has such a caring heart.”