A novel idea

Elkhorn family with four adopted children to be basis of novel

By Anne Trautner

Assistant Editor

With just one phone call to Catholic Social Services in Madison, Ann Goebel was able to find details about her birth parents.

Goebel, who was adopted 52 years ago and raised in Elkhorn, does not intend to contact her birth parents. Instead, her plan is to write about them in a fictional novel she is writing.

“[The] novel, which includes excerpts from my life, is a somewhat embellished story from the information I do have from my adoption, and the final part, which will be totally conjecture on a meeting between my biological mother and me,” Goebel said.

Ann’s story

On July 21, 1961, a 17-year-old high school student gave birth to a baby girl. The baby’s alleged biological father had dropped out of high school, joined the military and moved to California, according to state records.

The young mother, who lived in Milwaukee, had planned to give her child to a Jewish couple in Illinois through a private adoption. For some reason, the girl changed her mind and decided to give the child up for adoption through the Archdiocese of Milwaukee’s Catholic Charities.

“My biological mother, at 17, was pretty determined that adoption was the path for her. I belonged to her and needed a home,” Goebel said. “She went back to high school after I was born.  Especially in 1961, that had to be difficult, especially with everyone probably knowing that she had been pregnant.”

About a week after the baby’s birth, a social worker transported the child to a foster family. The social worker named the baby “Ann.”

After caring for her for about five months, the foster family transferred Ann to the Archdiocese of Milwaukee, where nuns cared for her for several weeks.

Meanwhile, Matthias and Josephine Goebel had adopted three children and were waiting to adopt a fourth.

“My parents walked into a room full of babies, and they were told to choose one. And so they chose me,” Ann Goebel said.

The Goebel family

Matthias and Josephine Goebel, who were married in 1950, wanted a large family. Unable to have children of their own, the couple decided to adopt four children through Catholic Charities.

“Even in their era of adoption, it was very unusual to adopt four children,” Ann Goebel said. “It was still somewhat of a rigorous process back then. They had to go through a home study and be approved through the social welfare agency. There were still quite tight parameters for adoption.”

The Goebels raised their four children, Matt, Chris, Mary Jo (Wales) and Ann, in Elkhorn. None of the children were biological siblings.

“None of us remember being told that we were adopted; we just always knew,” Ann Goebel said. “Our parents always told us, ‘We are so lucky that God had a different plan for us. We get to choose our babies; nobody else gets to choose their babies.’ That is part of the reason we handled it so well. We grew up in a very close, very loving family. None of us seemed to struggle with the fact that we were adopted. It is just who we are. It was really wonderful.”

Matthias Goebel, who died in 2004 at age 83, worked as an architect for Goebel, Balestrieri and Associates in Elkhorn. Among the buildings he designed are Elkhorn Area High School, Lakeland School, Tibbets School, Alpine Resort, the old State Bank in Elkhorn, the Wisconsin School for the Deaf in Delavan and Mayfair Mall in Milwaukee.

Josephine Goebel, who stayed home with the children until they were all in school, taught at St. Patrick Parish Catholic School in Elkhorn. After earning a master’s degree in social welfare, she worked for Walworth County, helping senior citizens. She died at age 72 in 1996.

“My parents had a love for travel, which they instilled in us,” Ann Goebel said. “We did a lot of traveling; we had a lot of amazing family experiences.”

Pure fiction

Ann Goebel, who now lives in Sarasota, Fla., has never written a book before.

Entitled “Misbegotten,” her debut novel shares the perspectives of various people in her life, including her birth mother, grandmother, father, foster mother, social worker and adoptive parents, as they were facing a fourth adoption.

“It is the embellished story of what might have happened with my birth adoption,” Ann Goebel said.

Ann Goebel has not yet started the final section of the book, in which she connects with her birth mother.

“There’s going to be a reason I need to connect with her, probably the need to get some type of health history for one of my children, that’s probably going to be the next part of the book,” Ann Goebel said. “I also thought she could reach out to me for some reason. I’m not really sure yet, I’m kind of going between the two.”

In real life, Ann Goebel said she doesn’t feel the need to connect with her birth mother.

“I just don’t want to disrupt her life. She could have gotten married and had other children, and they might not know about me. It could mess up her life,” Ann Goebel said. “If she would reach out to me, I would respond.”

Ann Goebel worked as a school administrator in Germantown before moving to Florida last year. Since then, she has been taking writing classes and written for Venice Gulf Coast Living.

“I loved my career, but I have always been intrigued with writing,” she said. “So I decided to start by writing a short story. That developed into this book of my adoption story.”

Happily ever after

“When I went to college, I had friends who were not told that they were adopted until they were 18 or 19 years old, and they were messed up about it. I served on an adoption panel for people who have been adopted, and there were people who had terrible stories, with real attachment issues,” Ann Goebel said. “I don’t feel that at all.”

Ann Goebel said she believes she had the best of the adoption world, with foster parents who showered her with love and a very loving adopted family.

Her extended family always welcomed the adopted children, as well, Ann Goebel said.

“We are all very much at peace with who we are and how we were raised,” she said. “Adoption has been framed within such a positive manner for us…it is something to be proud of. We were so blessed with our family. That’s just who we were, who my family was.”