In 1991, a 35-year-old mail carrier named Kathleen found out she was expecting triplets when she was seven months pregnant.
As Kathleen’s daughter, Rikki Jump, recalls, her mother was terrified.
Kathleen, who is deaf, was working for the United States Postal Service, while her husband, Lee, was a long-haul truck driver.
Lee, 58 at the time, had two grown children from a previous marriage.
Since Lee had undergone a vasectomy before meeting Kathleen, the couple used donor sperm to conceive.
“He reluctantly agreed that yes, I could have a baby,” Kathleen shared.
However, Rikki points out that having triplets would have pushed the family into poverty.
“They were not prepared financially to raise triplets,” Rikki says.
“And there was also the issue of my dad’s age — he was already getting up there in years.”
So, Kathleen and Lee made the tough decision to place two of their daughters for adoption.
Rikki recalls a sign that her sisters, Kendall and Julianne, were meant to be raised together.
During an ultrasound, Kendall and Julianne were both positioned head down, while Rikki was breech.
Despite doctors’ predictions that this wouldn’t change, Kendall turned to be head down with Julianne.
“So my mom was like, ‘OK. They’re supposed to be together,'” Rikki shares.
After the babies were born in July 1991, Kathleen and Lee left the hospital with Rikki, while Kendall and Julianne went home with their adoptive parents, Ken and Tina Scavo.
The Scavos had struggled with infertility for over six years and had endured two failed adoptions.
Kathleen found it hard to say goodbye to Kendall and Julianne, but she felt in her heart that they “belonged with Tina and Ken.”
The adoption was initially open, allowing Kathleen to visit Kendall and Julianne.
However, after a year, the adoption became closed.
Rikki explains, “Back then, the law was that birth mothers could come and reclaim their children. The news would show footage of birth mothers snatching their children back, and I think Tina and Ken got nervous.”
The families lived 40 minutes apart in Colorado, but Kendall and Julianne didn’t know about Rikki until they were eight years old.
Their parents revealed Rikki’s existence as a special Christmas gift.
Meanwhile, Rikki, who knew about her sisters from Kathleen, often wondered what life would be like if they were all together.
When Rikki was 10, her father, Lee, passed away from cancer, and Kathleen announced they would be moving to Missouri to be closer to family.
Before moving, Rikki reached out to Tina and Ken Scavo to meet her sisters.
They agreed, and the meeting took place at a shopping mall in Colorado.
“They were pretty unfazed. I mean we were all super anxious before we got there, but then it was normal, sort of like meeting up with an old friend. They felt so familiar,” Rikki recalls.
After Rikki moved to Missouri, the girls stayed in touch by writing letters.
Every summer, Rikki would spend two weeks living with the Scavos.
“I experienced a lot of bullying all the way through high school, and those summers were my refuge,” she says.
“Tina and Ken introduced me to foods I’d never tried before, and I went on my first boat ride. They opened my eyes to all these new things.”
Today, Rikki, Kendall, and Julianne all live in Austin, Texas, where they co-host a podcast called “Luke, Who is Your Father.”
They go on group dates with their partners and have regular game nights.
Rikki admits she sometimes feels like a third wheel, but acknowledges that it’s to be expected, given that Kendall and Julianne grew up in the same home, with the same parents.
“It’s really sad that we had to be separated — but we would have been in absolute poverty if my parents had three children,” Rikki says.
“I know we will never have the relationship that we would have had if we had been raised together. But that’s OK. We have each other now.”
Hear more about their incredible story in the video below.
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