Woman discovers birth family on Facebook — by accident

Abbey Donohoe, 29, of Bettendorf, Iowa, recently discovered her birth family, by accident, on Facebook.

Donohoe's friend, Paula O'Brien, had posted a message about a baby given up for adoption 29 years ago. She included the birth date: September 19th.

"It was just a surreal," Donohoe told KWQC. "Did I really just accidentally find my birth family?"

"When I was a little girl, one of my older brothers and his girlfriend gave a baby up for adoption," O'Brien said. "It really had an impact on me and for years, I had hoped to find her."

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O'Brien was 11 years old when she learned her brother had fathered a child. She was extremely disappointed that he didn't raise the baby.

"I was heartbroken," she told the Quad-City Times. "I was so ready. I was the youngest one in the family, so I wanted another girl around the house."

"It stayed with me all my life," she said. "I just always had this sense that she was out there. We’ve always observed her birthday, always had plans to find her. I wondered, 'Does she look like me?'"

Shortly after a Facebook exchange that verified dates, O'Brien and Donohoe confirmed that they were actually family: Donohoe is O'Brien's niece.

"The fact that this person has been right before my eyes for four, five years is just amazing," O'Brien told the Quad-City Times. "It feels like I got a little sister. This is not a niece, we're closer than that. The beauty about it, too, is that we are so alike and get along so well. It’s a huge blessing."

"My family had prayed for this for years," O'Brien said of identifying her long lost niece. "For 29 years we dreamed of this day and it's here."

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O'Brien told her brother, who now lives in Tennessee, about Donohoe. He's excited by the news, ABC7 reported. Only recently did he tell his three children that they have an older half-sister.

Donohoe's birth mother has also been notified.