I Found Out I was Adopted At 30!

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You can type it up send it to us and you'll be hearing back from us. We love these stories. Your stories make this show what it is. Up next Skip Reeves who listens to us on KOA Newsradio 8 50 a.m and 94.1 fm out of Denver. Skip found out something interesting about himself when he was in his 30s.

Here's our own Monty Montgomery with a story. Skip Reeves real name isn't actually Skip. My real name is Jory.

As I understand when my mother was pregnant with me my grandfather would say to her during the course of the pregnancy when is that little Skipper coming out of there? And so when I was born the name Skipper just kind of stuck. I have four children that have grown at this point. I grew up to be a professional musician. I was a professional drummer at one time and I had the moniker known as the world's tallest drummer because I'm six feet eleven and so everywhere I would travel to perform everybody would say we've never seen a drummer as tall as you. I have the privilege of playing with nationally known bands such as the Drifters, the Platters. I played with the Marvelettes, the female group from Motown. So I had a pretty happy career as a professional drummer.

All in all I'm doing okay. My childhood first of all my father was in the military. He was in the army for 25 years so all of my childhood life I was a military brat.

We traveled around a lot but I lived a good portion of my childhood in Germany. My childhood was a good one for the most part because I had a very loving hands-on attentive father. I had a very good father. I liked being in my father being in the military.

All the traveling around when I look back on it really prepared me for life and all of the challenges that it would bring upon me as I moved through life. I was a little black kid but you know I grew up around a variety of races of people so because of that and living in another country I grew up to learn that people are just people. I didn't grew up with any kind of racial issues. My father didn't teach us any of that while we were growing up. I will tell you this he certainly taught us to stand up for ourselves. He taught us you know hey respect other people and have them respect you so my father certainly didn't raise any of his kids to be pushovers or to be walked on or or walked over but he raised us just to be decent people who who you know make a positive contribution to society. So I grew up like that and I'm still I'm still that same person to this day but my father was a major major influence on me because he really was a man who loved his kids. He took care of us very well cared about all of us deeper deeply and he would do anything he could to help us support us and to stand by us so my childhood for the most part was was a good one you know.

But it wasn't one without its corpse. When I was five years old and we were living in Germany at the time my mother came up to me one time and she said Skipper because that's what she called me then and she still calls me that to this day. My mother said Skipper she said I got to talk to you about something a little bit important. She said we're going to go see a man and and he's a judge and this man is going to ask you you know certain questions about your father. And I said I got to ask you some questions about your father and with whatever questions he asked you you know say yes to them and you know are you happy here in this family you know how does less than treat you because that's my father's name less than you know how does he treat you and so forth so a man is going to ask you some questions about that you know just answer them the way I'm telling you to answer and I said well okay I mean I was five years old I had no clue what was going on so we went to some building I can remember going into a little small room which now I'm pretty sure was the judge's chambers at the time I didn't know what it was but we went back there and sure enough there was a judge there with the typical judge clothes on and he did start asking me questions you know how did I feel about being a part of this family you know what did I think about my dad it wasn't that many questions maybe four or five I think that I can recall and I pretty much answered positive and affirmatively to all the questions and so you know the judge said okay that's it and we walked out of there and went home I never gave it another thought but what I found out was later on when the whole issue came up of him not being my biological father when I went to go talk to my mom about it that's when she brought that up she said skipper she said remember when you was a little boy in Germany and five years old and you had to go talk to that judge and I said yeah she said well that was the occasion that your father was officially adopting you and I said oh so that's what that was about but at five years old it didn't mean anything to me I just went in and answered the questions and we came out of there that's right skip was actually adopted and he didn't know about it until he was in his 30s with kids of his own but it took some discord in his father's life for that information to come out my mother and father divorced so some years later my father remarried and unfortunately you know some years into the marriage that relationship began to sour as well well sometime prior before that my father had taken his then wife down to uh Texas because you know my father's from Texas and uh you know as his wife was visiting with some of the you know older relatives the conversation just came up that I was not you know less than's biological son when my father and her started having some some issues in their marriage as I was told she threatened to call me and tell me personally that you know that less than is not my father as soon as she said that my father called my mother and told her the situation and he says you know Reba my mother's name is Reba he said you know what you need to tell skip what's went on all this time he needs to hear the story from you so my mother called me one day and she was crying and trembling on the phone and yes I was 33 years old at this age married and but she called me on the phone and you know and you know trembling and I could I could tell there was a lot of anxiety there and she said skip I need you to I need you to come over here because I got something real important to talk to you about and I said okay so you know I got in my car and drove across town and went to her house and so when I walked into the house she was shaking and trembling and you know she was kind of crying and said I got something I need to tell you and uh and I basically said just go ahead and tell me I said you know just you can relax and calm down whatever it is just just go ahead and tell me and she says well you remember when you were uh five years old and you went before that judge so on and so forth and I said yeah she said well less than is not your biological father she said uh that was part of the adoption process and I said okay so you know what you know what and she kind of looked at me like that's it and I said well what do you what am I supposed to do you know and she said and I said first of all I said mom that doesn't bother me I said it doesn't bother me at all I said you know I wouldn't trade him for a father for any other man on this planet I said I've never felt like I was not a part of this family I've never felt like he was not my father uh I said so you know you can relax you know I said there's there's nothing to be upset about I said I don't see that either of you did anything wrong and she says well she said skip you know we never meant to keep this from you she said but she says but you guys just got along so well and did everything she said it just never came up so I said I'm okay I said I'm not mad at anybody I'm not upset and I said so everybody can relax and calm down it is what it is let's keep moving there's been absolutely no change no altering whatsoever none whatsoever as a matter of fact I think finding that out probably brought me even closer to my dad because after I found that out I called him up and I said you know what dad I love you even more I said because man you took on a child that wasn't yours and gave me a great life you know what he just said he just said well skipper I love you too and we didn't and we didn't have a very long conversation about it it wasn't very long at all I mean I think the conversation might have been two or three minutes and it was over you know I grew up very very secure knowing that my father was that kind of man he just raised me to just be okay with who I am and I've learned that that's a very important position to know just who in the world are you and what a beautiful story a special thanks to skip reeves for telling it skip reeves story a beautiful adoption story here on our american story from football playoffs to basketball madness tcl roku tvs are the best way to stream your favorite live sports with all the biggest sports channels a sports zone with all available games in one place and apps like iheart radio with sports podcasts such as the herd with colin cowherd cheering on your favorite team has never been easier a big 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