'I Always Mattered To Him': He Never Knew He Had a Daughter. 40 Years Later, He Officially Adopted Her

February 16, 2026

Jennifer Skiles’ life has been filled with loss, resilience, and remarkable reunions. After years of searching for the parents she never knew, she not only found her father—he officially adopted her decades after her birth, turning a long and painful journey into a beautiful new beginning.

Jennifer and Paul / WBIR Channel 10

Born in Germany, Skiles spent the first three years of her life with her biological mother before being placed for adoption in the United States.

In the U.S., Skiles grew up in a family with siblings and parents she loved, forming happy memories of beach trips and fishing days. But her childhood took a painful turn in her early teens.

“My home life was wonderful until it wasn't,” she said. “My father that raised me started abusing me when I was 12 years old, and that went on for six years.”

After her adoptive father died when she was 18 and her adoptive mother passed away from cancer when she was 25, Skiles found herself suddenly and painfully alone.

“For me, it was like I lost everybody at one time, and it was so devastating. It was then that I decided that I wanted to really, really find my biological mother.”

With only a name and a last known location in Texas, Skiles began searching. A move to Germany with her children’s father helped her obtain her original birth certificate, which provided another crucial clue. Eventually, after paying for an online search, she located an address and sent a letter.

Two weeks later, the phone rang.

“There’s this like shaky voice on the other end, and she said she was Cheryl, she knew who I was, and she'd like for me to call her,” Skiles recalled.

That call led to visits, and visits grew into a close, loving relationship. But their time together was tragically cut short. Twelve years after they were reunited, Cheryl died in a car crash.

“I just thought I'd never find her, and there she was, and then there she was gone again,” Skiles said.

Even after that loss, one piece of her story remained unfinished: the identity of her father, who had never known she existed.

What her mother had told her was simple but powerful. Her parents had met while both were serving in the military, spent a romantic weekend together in New York, and then went their separate ways—unaware a child would come from that brief chapter.

Years later, a DNA match through Ancestry and some determined online searching finally led Skiles to Rhode Island and to her father, Paul Lonardo.

“I sent a message to my dad, I said, ‘I know you're just as nervous as I am, I’m praying for both of us,’” she said. “And then, he called. And it was just like home. First time I heard his voice, it was like being at home.”

When they met in person for the first time more than four decades after her birth, the connection only deepened.

“I’m blessed every day,” Lonardo said. “Sometimes people will meet me, I say, you might want to shake my hand. I'm the luckiest guy you're ever gonna meet in your whole life.”

As they spent time together, father and daughter discovered they had more in common than just DNA. Both are left-handed, and Skiles embraced learning about her Italian heritage, even traveling to Italy to explore her roots.

Lonardo also revealed something remarkable he had kept all those years: a small bar of soap from the hotel where he and Skiles’ mother had spent that long-ago weekend.

“Being a 19-year-old kid, I don't know why, but just something told me to save this,” he said. “It's a little bar of soap from the hotel that I stayed at, and I never wanted to forget it.”

For Skiles, the keepsake carried deep meaning.

“I always mattered,” she said. “Somehow, he knew… this was something to say, I mattered to him.”

Though both sometimes reflect on the years they missed, they focus on the time they have now.

“When she told me how it was, I was like 'the same reason you're looking for me is the same reason I'll never let you out of my sight',” he said.

Recently, that future included a milestone neither of them will ever forget: Lonardo officially adopted Skiles, making their father-daughter bond legal as well as emotional.

“I want my dad’s name to be attached to me,” Skiles said. “And I just think it’s so beautiful. We’re so excited.”

Inspired by her journey, Skiles has also written a book about her life. It's titled “Vault of Treasures” and sold on Amazon.