WEBVTT
Kind: captions
Language: en

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- My name's Robbie,

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and I'm gonna meet my
birth mother this weekend.

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(acoustic guitar music)

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My parents were open about
the adoption my whole life.

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I didn't really care,

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'cause the adoptive
parents were my parents,

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and I didn't think any other way.

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I have never met my birth mother.

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My brother hadn't either,

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but we're blood related,
so it's the same mother.

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I got the three little facts.

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Her name, where she used to
live, and her maiden name.

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It blew my mind that, honestly,

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with little tid-bits of information,

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you could find someone on the internet.

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(acoustic guitar music)

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I'm excited to go out with my brother,

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and take a journey and meet her.

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It's too early!

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Just landed!

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This is Doug.

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- I'm Doug.

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- My brother.

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Same birth mother.

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Same adoptive family.

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- I am a little nervous.

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Basically, get to kinda, you know,

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see a different lens of
what my life could've been.

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- [Robbie] What do you
think of this whole journey?

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- I think it's probably
gonna be a shit show,

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but I really hope it's not,

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'cause like, you guys don't deserve that.

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And listening to the conversations
that you've had with her,

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like, I don't know,

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'cause she doesn't sound that interested

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in meeting you guys.

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- [Robbie] Yeah.

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- Yeah.

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- It's the night before we go

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and meet Suzanne, my birth mother.

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And feeling-wise,

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I think I'm more nervous
than I've ever been

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about meeting someone or
doing something before.

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We're gonna understand where we came from,

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and why we were given up,

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and why we were lucky enough to

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be adopted by such a great family.

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But it was kinda hard
to get a read on her,

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the last couple of times I
talked to her on the phone,

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because she, she just, I don't know,

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she didn't seem as excited
as Doug and I were.

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We'd be like, "Can't wait to see you!"

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And she'd be like, "Oh, okay."

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So, I guess, going into
this, I'm not really sure

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where her mind is at.

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So, we just got off the highway,

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and we're kinda in, I
guess southwest Pueblo.

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I guess we'll park here and walk in.

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(acoustic guitar music)

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Suzanne?

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(acoustic guitar music)

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It's nice to meet you!

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- Which one are you?

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- I'm Robbie.

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- Doug.

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- Oh, alright!

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- How are you?

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- Alright.

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- How are you?

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- Alright.

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- Yeah?

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Wow.

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I actually got to meet you.

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- Yeah!

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(acoustic guitar music)

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- This was me in my younger days.

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That's when Chrissy was
about seven or eight.

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And this is Charlie when he was--

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- Wow, that is,

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that is uncanny!

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- Here's Pat.

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I don't have too many
pictures of him left.

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- Yeah, see you're gonna
have no hair in a few years.

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(laughter)

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You're gonna do what I do!

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(laughter)

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So, this is the first time I've ever seen

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a picture of our birth father.

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- This is Chrissy when she was 17.

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My mother was very poor,

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and she had eight kids.

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We ended up in a children's home,

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and my mother died at 16.

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- Wow.

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- Then I got involved with pot,

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which was a train ride through hell,

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is the only answer.

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When you guys came along,

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you were supposed to stay
with me in this family,

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and I had Robbie to give you a companion.

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It wasn't an accident.

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Robbie wasn't an accident.

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For me, you know,

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I don't look at them as they're my kids,

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'cause they're not.

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I look at myself as a surrogate mother.

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I was an instrument to get them in here,

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so they could get their lessons done.

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And so, we're strangers,

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is what we are.

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- I mean, everything we know about you,

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I think we've learned in the past month.

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- Yeah!

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- Yeah.

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- When I went to court for,

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not court, but the judge's
chamber for Robbie,

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the judge says,

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"You release all claims to these kids."

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And I thought, "That was rotten!"

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'Cause when we first made the deal,

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it was supposed to be an open adoption,

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and Bruce and Anne closed it.

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- Do you know why they did that?

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- Yeah, 'cause I was very
unstable back in those times.

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- Mm-hmm.

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- And I know I was.

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- Do you think it was for
the best that that happened?

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- Probably so!

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Probably so.

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- We're extremely thankful for--

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- Grateful for the
chance that you gave us.

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The opportunity to do
something with our lives.

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- I'm happy to see where you're at,

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because you fulfilled my deal with God.

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'Cause I wanted a better education,

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a better life, which
Anne and Bruce gave you,

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and nice jobs.

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And you did.

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(acoustic guitar music)

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Well--

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- It's great seeing you.

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- Yeah, good seeing you guys.

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You take care.

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- Yeah, we'll definitely keep in touch.

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- It was great to meet you.

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- Uh-huh, great meeting you!

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- I feel good about the experience.

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- Good, it was a great experience.

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I think the thing that
sticks out the most,

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was just her, her strength
to be able to do this,

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and to be able recognize that, you know,

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she's in a very difficult situation,

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and to be able to look beyond that,

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and see what, you know,
she thought was a way out,

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that would give us a chance.

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Just the strength to be able to do that

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is very impressive to me.

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- I wouldn't mind having her in my life.

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- Yeah!

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- Yeah.

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- It's good to keep in touch with her,

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let her know how we're doing.

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- She did an amazing thing for us,

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so if we can give back a little anything,

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I mean, I think she more than warrants it.

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- I think that we're
smiling after we do this

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says a lot about, you know,
how this weekend went.

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(smooth music)

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(swoosh)

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(squeaking)