THERMOPOLIS, Wyo. – Jessica Lippincott always felt like something about her upbringing didn’t quite make sense.

Today, years after questioning so much about her childhood, she counts her blessings by the dozens and learns that she is one of 50 half-siblings.

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Lippincott, who now lives in Thermopolis, Wyoming, has a background in science, dinosaur exploration and filmmaking. He was born in Southern California and often asked his mother about their family history.

Jessica Lippincott

“I would ask him if I was adopted,” Lippincott said. “I would ask him if I had brothers and sisters because he was like, ‘Are you sure? “I feel like I have siblings.”

His mother never made it known, but years later, as her mother was dying, more details emerged.

Jessica Lippincott

His mother died in 2013. Before that, she was married to a man who raised Lippincott as his stepfather and eventually adopted him.

“I remember when he died, he had terminal cancer and I was writing his obituary and I started asking him some questions about who I thought my real father was because I don’t have any memories,” Lippincott said. . “And he started telling me. And I said, ‘What do you mean?’ And he said he used a sperm donor and went to a fertility clinic.”

Stunned by this revelation, Lippincott gently pressed his mother for more information.

“Then he got really angry and didn’t want to talk about it anymore, so I stopped talking because it was upsetting him,” she said.

23andI

This conversation stayed with him for years. In 2017, she decided to take 23andMe genetic testing.

“And of course, by the time I took the test, he had already passed away, so I couldn’t ask any more questions, and my stepfather, who raised me, had passed the exam, so I couldn’t ask him any questions. Well,” she said.

The test confirmed what her mother had told her: The man she thought was her father was not.

When Lippincott was two years old, her mother separated from a man named Thomas Peters. Peters tracked the family to Wyoming and kidnapped Lippincott from her grandmother’s custody.

“I remember being in the back of a car, then being in a room, and that’s all I remember,” he said.

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The kidnapping received widespread media coverage and police searched for Peters for months. Finally, a private investigator hired by Lippincott’s mother found them three months later in Florida.

After years of living with this harsh trauma, genetic testing brought a surprising sense of relief.

“I was ashamed that he was my father and I never talked about it. “And it was a huge relief when I found out it wasn’t,” he said.

Still, questions remained.

If Peters wasn’t her father and her stepfather, who was he?

Jessica Lippincott

“That’s what I was looking for when I got tested; if there was some kind of medical issue I needed to know about,” he said.

Lippincott says medical history is a major concern for many people born through sperm donation, and he firmly believes the United States needs stricter regulations on sperm donation clinics, including more advanced mental health testing and stricter laws on how often someone can donate .

While she believes there are probably more half-siblings out there, she may never know how many there are. Lippincott says the clinic his mother attended was destroyed in a fire and all records were lost.

“And when my test results came back, that was the first thing I clicked on—all this medical information,” he said. “Then I clicked on DNA relatives and was shocked.”

This “big shock” confirmed what Lippincott had always felt inside: He was not an only child.

Jessica Lippincott

“So I’m one of the 50 people who were approved,” he said.

More half-siblings have turned up in the genetic record since the test was conducted in 2017, and Lippincott suspects there may be even more. When her mother and stepfather die, she relies on her siblings to piece together her identity.

“We all have the same eyes and mouth, so yes,” he said.

He met many of his siblings in person, forming relationships and finding connections he had been missing for years.

“And there are some people I haven’t met yet, and that’s okay. “One day I will,” he said.

Their similarities to their siblings go beyond their physical features. Many share his love of science and art.

As for his biological father, he still lives in Southern California and is now in his 80s with his own family.

“I’ve met him a few times and he’s met my kids, which is very special,” she said.

It took years, thanks to genetic testing, for Lippincott to learn the truth about who he was.

She now celebrates a larger family and finds solace in the strength of their bonds and the love they share.

“My heart is full,” he said.

Jessica Lippincott