'Pioneer Woman' Ree Drummond said that Jamar is "a full-fledged member" of her family.
The foster son of cookbook author, Ree Drummond and Ladd Drummond, Jamar Goff, sincerely admires his foster father. The 20-year-old thanked Ladd Drummond for being "the best father figure" in an Instagram post in which he wished him a happy birthday, per TODAY.
“I’ve been blessed with the best father figure I could possibly ask for. The smartest, strongest, most dedicated, and devoted man I know,” Jamar shared in the photo caption posted on January 22. “You’ve taught me more things than you know and you’re still teaching me.”
“Thank you for everything you’ve done and everything you’re doing, I couldn’t be more grateful for the man I get to call ‘dad,’” he continued before adding, “Happy Birthday!! Don’t work too hard.”
In addition to Jamar, the Drummonds are also parents to Alex, Paige, Bryce, and Todd. The Pioneer Woman, Ree Drummond, revealed to Savannah Guthrie and Hoda Kotb on TODAY in 2020 that Jamar is "a full-fledged member" of her family.
“He’s been living with us for over a year and a half,” Ree Drummond said at the time, adding, “Ladd, my husband, and myself never set out to be foster parents. But Jamar’s circumstances kind of presented themselves, and he’s just a full-on member of our family.”
In her book Frontier Follies: Adventures in Marriage and Motherhood in the Middle of Nowhere, the blogger, television personality, and novelist discusses Jamar's place in her family, per TODAY. Before this, Drummond stated that she was required to keep quiet about Jamar being part of their family because of adoption regulations, even though he had been a member of her clan for a significant amount of time. “I felt very protective of him when he first came to live with us,” she added. “So I didn’t want to kind of just thrust him out there.”
But Jamar thought he was being kept a secret. “After a while, Jamar was like, ‘OK, I feel like I’m being hidden from the world.’” Drummond recalled. “So when he turned 18, I did write about him in the book. And I shared the essay with him before the book was published to make sure he was OK with it.”
Savannah said during the interview that Jamar “seems just to complete” Drummond’s family. And Drummond agrees, adding, “He really does, in so many wonderful ways. He and my younger son, Todd, who’s 16, are actually just the best of friends. And Jamar and Bryce are peers, they play football together. … Two or three years ago, if someone had told me I would be a foster mother, I couldn’t have predicted how that would have unfolded.”
The family cemented their foundation in April 2022 when they recreated the kid's childhood photos from Easter to include Jamar. “I love these pookie heads a lot,” Ree Drummond wrote in a carousel that included a photo of her children posed identically, but all grown up and with Jamar.
References:
https://www.today.com/parents/ree-drummond-reveals-why-she-wasn-t-able-share-about-t199225
https://www.instagram.com/p/CnudNndrTk4/
Cover Image Source: (L) Getty Images | Photo by Monica Schipper ; (R) Instagram | Photo by @jamar_goff_
