Jennifer Bricker with Christina Moceanu, her younger sister.
This is a sad story on the surface that has a tentative happy ending. Bear with me if you’ve heard this. Do you remember Olympic gymnast Dominique Moceanu? She was a big deal in the 90s, when she went on to win the Gold for the US in 1996 as part of the women’s gymnastics team in Atlanta. She was a tiny little thing, and now she’s a grown woman of 30 with her own family.
Dominique discovered a deep family secret in 2008. When she was six her mother had a baby daughter, Jennifer, who was born without legs. The little girl was given up for adoption due to the expensive medical care she would require, and Dominique was never told about her. Her mother went on to have another daughter, Christina, a few years later who was also never told about her sister who was given up for adoption.
It sounds like Jennifer flourished with her adoptive family, and she became an accomplished athlete just like her sister. Jennifer even admired Dominique as a role model without having any idea that she was related to her. It wasn’t until she was in her teens that Jennifer’s parents learned that the famous Olympian Dominique Moceanu was her sister. Jennifer reached out to Dominique and to her other sister, Christina Moceanu, four years ago and they were amazed and how much they had in common. Here’s more:
The world only learned last week that Olympic gymnast Dominique Moceanu had a secret sister that her family abandoned, and now RadarOnline.com has photos of the sibling that show she is the spitting image of the gold medalist.
Born without legs, Jennifer Bricker, 24, has defied the odds and proven that nature is stronger than nurture by carving out a successful career as an aerial gymnast in Studio City, California.
The pretty brunette was all smiles when she posed outside the Wendy Williams show on Monday after what is sure to be the first of many media appearances.
While growing up in Oblong, Illinois winning state titles and competing in the Junior Olympics, Bricker had no idea that the athlete she idolized most was really her flesh and blood. Her adoptive parents, Sharon and Gerald Bricker finally told her details of her background when she was 16, and it would be another four years before she contacted Dominique directly.
As RadarOnline.com previously reported, Moceanu only discovered that she even had a little sister when Jen wrote to her out of the blue in 2008 to reveal that she thought they were related.
“It was the biggest bombshell of my life,” Moceanu, 30, told ABC’s 20/20. “I had this sister that was born who was given up for adoption, and I never knew it.”
When she confronted her family, the Romanian-American star of the Atlanta games was told her baby sister had been born the day after her sixth birthday but was put up for adoption because she would require expensive medical care.
[From Radar Online]
This story reminds me of one of the most interesting celebrity stories I’ve ever heard. Michael Caine revealed in his autobiography that he had an half brother who had lived in an asylum, who he had no idea existed until after his mother’s death. Michael’s mother is the only one in the family who know about the man, her illegitimate son, whom she visited every week without fail for over 50 years. After his mother passed someone from the institution contacted Michael and put him in touch with the man, whom he looked in on and took care of until his death.
I recently met a lady who volunteers at the genealogy department of the local Mormon church, so I went in to use their computers during their public hours (they have a paid version of ancestry.com available for use). It took about an hour for me to find the 1930 census entry for my great grandparents, and I was thrilled about it. It also made me feel somewhat of a loss for not knowing them, for missing out on some part of their lives and my history. I know that sounds cheesy, but I guess I’m trying to understand why this story touched me so much. I still miss my grandparents all the time. Can you imagine finding out you had a secret brother or sister you’ve never known about? What a gift to find them, and to be able to get to know them.
If you’d like to know more about this story, there’s more on the background of Dominique’s troubled relationship with her parents here, and this article in People has some very touching anecdotes about the relationship between the three sisters and the things they share in common.
Here are Jennifer Bricker and Christina Moceanu (Dominique and Jennifer’s younger sister) outside the Wendy Williams show yesterday.
Dominique in the mid 90s:
Dominique in 2006:
From left to right: Jennifer Bricker, Christina Moceanu and Dominique Moceanu:
this is a pretty awesome story. Spreading positive vibes to both sis’s!
Wow. What a huge, huge bombshell. The girls look happy, and I’m glad they were able to reconnect after all of those years. But….wow. This hits me really hard, too CB- I have two brothers, one of whom is deceased, and we were really, really close growing up. To think that for her, there was two others out there ‘alone’ (with families but not each other) kind of breaks my heart.
Happy that these girls found each other!!
I am adopted and often check to see if anyone is looking for me. So far no luck, New York state is closed adoptions and I can’t even get my original birth cert. w/o going to court.
Oh sweetie i hope you’re feeling well about it, i’m sure the family that adopted you is amazing, good luck to you for your research. i wish you the best xx
Thanks you!!! I have the best family, but there is a part of me that wants to see who I resemble. My birthday is Thursday and I always get a little sad this time of year!!
Dorothy, you never know! My mom was adopted when she was a baby in Ohio, and she only ever got in contact with her birth mother when she was in her mid-thirties. A friend of hers from high school, who she reconnected with online, offered to help look because it’s what he did for a living. My mom didn’t give it much thought, but a week later she got the call. It was devastating for her to learn why she was given up (very sad story), but ultimately I think it helped close some doors. If nothing else, it was fascinating to see a picture of my birth grandmother and see how much they looked alike.
Wow! Hoe awesome for your mom!!! I still have hope, but I am 38. I mostly would love to see pictures, and know medical info so I can pass that on to my kids.
Keep trying! My Aunt got pregnant very young in maybe 72? My grandmother (old school Italian) sent her away and made her give the baby up.
My aunt was barren after that and wanted kids. Her and my Grandmother decided that the misery of not knowing all those years was silly and they searched.
She grew up in a loving home a scant 15 miles from my Aunt! We all became reunited, my Aunt is a grandma, and the daughter embraces both families. We were all there at her wedding.
DOn’t give up hope!
Let me join in, with the others, to try and give you hope. My dad was given up in a state w/closed records. In his 60’s he went with an uncle to the records office and a clerk turned a blind eye while they searched for an entire day. They were able to contact a sister who met him for coffee the next day. She verified w/an elderly aunt that her mother had given up a baby. Resulted in a huge reunion with another sister, brother, nieces and nephews. Whether they know it or not, someone will be glad to hear from you! Best of luck.
I really don’t know what i feel about their mother..
I wasn’t going to go there but now that you said it …. yeah.
This is such a nice story because of the happy ending for the girls and they look really happy and like they’re doing well. Especially Jennifer seems like she was adopted by a fantastic couple.
But the parents, it sounds so sketchy when they give medical expenses as a reason because my God, gymnastics is not a cheap sport. So what, they had to choose between their girls and decided the sport was more important than the needs of their youngest daughter?
It’s harsh to judge parents who give kids up for adoption, I know. But I can’t help it when it’s about money, apparently.
I can’t imagine how a person placing a child up for adoption, doesn’t involve money. Maybe not always to this extent.
But if a teen places a child up for adoption, money factors into that decision.
Given the difficult relationship Dominique had with her parents, I can’t see that as having been a good environment for her sister.
Thanks for going there because that part broke my heart a litttle. I have two sons, and I love them both SO much, equally. I can’t imagine giving birth to my first son, loving him with all my heart, then having a second baby with some sort of “difference” and just giving him away. It seems incredibly heartless, especially to blame it on finances.
The part that really upsets me about the story is that the mother then had another child after she gave one away.. i don’t want to judge or anything but how can you have more children after you gave one away?
Kind of wondering how they could give up a child for adoption because it would be too expensive to raise her…when they were probably spending tons of money on training for Dominique. I’m sure Dominique appreciates the expense incurred for her to win a gold medal, but (without knowing more about the situation) it seems like an astounding lack of priorities on the parents’ part.
Other outlets are reporting that the parents actually gave her up for adoption not due to cost of medical care but because they wanted to raise highly competitive successful athletes and they didn’t think a legless girl fit that bill. The irony here is two-fold: #1 the cost of raising an olympian with all the training programs, travel, etc. is probably as much, if not more than the medical care they didn’t want to pay for and the child (who dodged a bullet by being adopted by a loving family) actually is an athlete
this. while it is awesome jennifier was adopted by parents that wanted to love a child regardless of the child’s perceived normality and ability, the birth parents’ “reason” is nauseating considering how much time and money they were willing to spend to rear exceptional athletes. it is wonderful they have found each other but they still have to deal with having those people for birth parents and the motivation behind their conceptions. i don’t envy people that were brought into the world only for parental gain. just look at lohan.
even though i don’t like the parents, ultimately, what they did for jennifer was in her best interest; she was never going to get the love and attention she deserved from them because she couldn’t give them what they wanted in a child.
love the girls, hate the parents.
@ olcranky: Seriously??? That’s just … wow. I don’t know, looking at Dominique’s struggle with her parents and now this story … it’s hard not to draw the conclusion that this child simply didn’t fit with what they wanted. Whether it’s the money or the fact that they didn’t think she could be an athlete (goes to show that you can achieve almost anything with the right support), it’s obviously not like they didn’t want more children. Just not this girl?
Gawd, some people. I just can’t help it, I do judge them for it if this is really true.
On a positive note, I’m so glad she grew up in a loving and supportive home. Might’ve been not so great for her in her birth parents’ home.
Romanians ruled gymnastics back then!
We still do! Ha. Sorry gotta support my mother country 🙂
@ paola
I think I can understand the difficult choice the mother had to make. Yes, her “choice” seems harsh for the daughter given up. But I hope that the mother made this decision out of love and a hope that her daughter would get the medical care and love that she needed in her adoptive home.
I didn’t know you could just be like “this infant is going to be too much trouble, let’s just pass this one along into the system, where they may or may not EVER find a Forever Home, but that’s better than us trying to care for it since it would REALLY be a LOT of trouble. We’ll just have another one and hope it comes out normal.”
That doesn’t sound right to me. :/ Or legal.
This happens all the time most of the kids in Romanian orphanages are disabled.There is a stigma of having a child who is disabled.Also my neighbor gave up a baby with DS and heart condition
…that her family abandoned
Well hurrah for emotive reporting. It says very clearly later on that the girl was given up for adoption because the family could not afford the medical care she would require. How is that abandoning? That’s doing something that must have been painful for the parents, in the best interest of the child.
I don’t agree about keeping the existence of the girl a secret, but I hate that ‘abandonment’ line. Sometimes giving a child better chances with another family really is in its best interest.
other outlets are reporting she was put up for adoption solely because she had no legs. They could afford all that goes into paying for the incredibly expensive training programs, etc. to raise an olympic athlete but medical expenses for their child were considered a hardship?
“I recently met a lady who volunteers at the genealogy department of the local Mormon church, so I went in to use their computers during their public hours (they have a paid version of ancestry.com available for use). It took about an hour for me to find the 1930 census entry for my great grandparents, and I was thrilled about it.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I have been doing the whole research thing since 2000. And thankfully had my grandmother to pester till she passed away in 2003. But the odd thing about any family… is you really only know what your immediate family chooses to tell you. And there is a lot of folklore floating around being held up as factual.
I was stunned at the stuff I have unearthed while working on my tree. No unknown children… but just crazy stuff.
But I am still amazed that Dominique’s parents hid a pregnancy! People had to have notice, one day the Mother is hugely pregnant yet never produces a baby. Very odd.
Be careful using the Mormon resources for family stuff, once you pull it up they will re-baptize your dead ancestors in their temples.
Dominique was training under Bela Karolyi and was supposed to be the next “Nadia” (Bela trained her too), so I’m sure Dominique’s dad wasn’t going to take her out of expensive gymnastics training for anything – even a child of his with medical needs.
Anyway, everything went kaput for Dominique in the ’96 Olympics after she fell on her two vaults in the team competition. She still went on to make good money and her father took a chunk of it to open up a gym in TX. I think it went bankrupt.
They’ve all been through a lot thanks to him. I’m going to get Dominique’s book that comes out today.
But who could forget her floor routine at the 96 Olympics, amazing! I knew she had difficulties with her parents and eventually became emancipated but i didn’t know her Dad lost all her money,that is sad.
But really she has a book coming out today? Awesome!
Excuse me while i run to Amazon.
Geneology research can be a tricky thing, because you never know what you’re going to find. I started a few months ago–my parents are in their 70s, and many of their generation have already passed away. On one hand, I found out that my maternal grandmother’s line has been in this country since before the revolutionary war (I’d always figured most of my relatives had come here during the Industrial Revolution or later)! But on the other hand, I discovered that when my grandma was 13yrs old her mom died, leaving 6 girls behind. 2 years later at age 15 my grandma was on the run, 4 of the other girls (1 died young) were in an orphanage, and their dad was in prison. My grandma never talked about it, so to this dad my dad doesn’t know what happened. I guess every family has crazy family secrets.
If you have not looked yet… check the old local newspapers. (where your grandmother lived at during her childhood)
The older newspapers printed EVERYTHING.
Especially if it had any whiff of gossip worthy behavior.
I have been stunned at what I have read in newspapers between 1890-1930.
And practically every newspaper I have done research in… had a dedicated “town gossip” page… or two.
@Hautie: Thanks for the tip! I hadn’t thought of local newspapers. My grandmother grew up in a small town but gradually migrated to Pittsburgh, so I’m not sure to start. I’ve also considered that I may not want to know what kinda skeletons are in that particular closet. LoL
Only part I don’t understand. How could Dominique have been unaware, at the age of 6, that her mother was pregnant and then went off to the hospital and had a baby? Kids younger than 6 are super excited about their mothers’ pregnancies, becoming an older sibling, etc.
I thought that was strange too. Maybe just a different culture so they didn’t explain things thoroughly? Seems like that could be damaging to a child. My mom told me that her mother always told her babies came from the cabbage patch. One day my mom saw my granny chopping up cabbage for a meal and burst into tears.
Lol! Your poor mum, sorry but that was pretty funny.
MY grandmothers generation said that the Indians bring babies, and break the mom’s legs! (To explain the bedrest)
Talk about emotionally scarring.
I know, Mimi right? lol! I think that’s why my mom had my bro and I watching PBS “How Babies Are Made” shows at age 5 🙂
if she was already in intensive training programs she may have been completely unaware of what was going on at home. Depending on how her mother carried, it may not have been obvious to her that the mother was pregnant (and the parents may not have said anything about it, especially if they knew there were abnormalities that would make them put that child up for adoption)
Trying to withold judgement on the mom..still such a touching story. Interesting that they’re both athletes.
Not sure if you ever watch “Who Do You Think You Are?”, C/B but whenever I happen to tune in, I always find it so fascinating and moving.
Thank you for this story, Celebitchy. I loved Dominique when I was young. She was so much fun to watch.
And, I love “Who Do You Think You Are?” now!
Apparently, Dominique’s father was unbelievably controlling and did not even let the mother see Jennifer, insisting that they should not keep her.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2157250/Jennifer-Brickers-emotional-letter-sister-Olympic-champ-Dominique-Moceanu-revealed.html
There are many women like this mother who sort of live in a perpetual trance under a domineering husband. I don’t mean to say it’s okay that she gave up her daughter, but I actually believe Jennifer went to a much better home than she would have grown up in. In Dominique’s family, I believe she would have grown up feeling enormously insecure and second rate, while in the Bricker family she was told her handicap was no excuse and she could do whatever she set her mind to. It was meant to be this way, in my opinion and thank God it was.
Dominique was one of my hero’s growing up, but Jennifer is one of my hero’s now and I am thrilled they found each other.
That link was a tear jerker.
I don’t watch that often but I saw the Rita Wilson one and I bawled
+1
That’s great that they found each other and can now form relationships. Must have been quite a shock.
Part of me feels judgey about the parents giving a baby up for adoption and then having more children, but I also can’t imagine that it was easy for them or what it was like to be facing that situation.
It takes a BIG person to adopt someone with those kind of difficulties and handicaps. I was perfectly healthy and nobody wanted to adopt me (obviously, it happened, and I’m very lucky for my dad). It’s hard enough being in “the system,” I can’t even imagine what this girl has gone through. Good for her for not letting a lack of a couple of limbs get her down! I think I found a new hero 🙂
Dominique wrote a book right around the 96 Olympics, or had it ghost written anyway. I bought it, of course, because I used to be a gymnast and was a huge fan of the Mag 7.
It was a fluff piece, for sure. But, the thing that stood out most to me was how her parents seemed to be obsessed with producing a champion. There was a picture of her as a baby hanging on to a clothes wire which, honestly, looked totally unsafe. She explained the photo by saying that her parents were constantly finding ways to “test her strength”. I remember being amazed, but also wondering if that qualified as some kind of child abuse.
With this new revelation about her sisters, it’s hard not to pass judgment on her parents. Especially her father. But, I’m glad the story has a fairly happy ending!
He parents did not want to raise a child without leggs so they gave her up for adoption. It is neither right nor wrong. They knew what they could handle and made their choice accordingly.
It’s crazy the stuff you can find researching. I’ve never had much interest in it, but my mom did tell me a story about how my great-grandfather may have been a murderer, so maybe it’s for the best that I let sleeping dogs lie…
Kinda makes me wonder if there aren’t any other children with disabilities that these parents may have given up, especially any that might have been born before Dominique.
The parents could have shared all that money they spent on Dominique with both children, even if that meant they couldn’t give Dominique all that training. But they made a choice & decided to gamble on one child. But why would they have a third child who would also add to expenses if they didn’t want their second child due to financial reasons? I don’t see the logic in their decision.
I wonder if Dominique had become paralyzed during her babyhood or toddler age, would the parents have given her up then too?
Dominique’s story is that she emancipated herself from her parents at age 17 & got a restraining order against her father for his stalking her. Iirc she hadn’t been talking to them for some years until she found out about her secret sister and needed to ask her parents some questions.
So weird that this story is on here because I have been watching gymnastics non-stop for months!