Santa Barbara Quadruplets Make Good with College Commitments

From Their ‘Oprah’ Debut to Signing Day, the Goodmans Reflect on Their Journey 

Santa Barbara Quadruplets Make Good with College Commitments

From Their ‘Oprah’ Debut to Signing Day, the Goodmans Reflect on Their Journey 

By Victor Bryant | April 28, 2022

Barrett, Laila, Cason, Beth, and Luke Goodman at Santa Barbara High School | Credit: Ingrid Bostrom

Finding out she was pregnant with four children was a tough moment for Beth Goodman. 

It was 2003, and Goodman was a single, 38-year-old floral designer living in Santa Barbara. Following a decade’s worth of unsuccessful pregnancy attempts, she decided to try to conceive one last time via in vitro fertilization. When she got the news that she was not only pregnant but expecting quadruplets, shock soon turned to dread.

“At the time, I did not see a path to saving my family, and a lot of people that I loved did not see a path either,” Goodman says today, nearly 19 years later. There were those who at the time believed raising quadruplets alone would be an impossible task, she said, and even that the family would be a burden to the state. “They were upset that I was maybe going to choose this impossible task and saddle them with responsibilities to buoy our lives.”

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