Facebook Extended Family Reunion

Aunt to an adoptee posts a message on Facebook and her niece happened to be one of her friends!

“More than 100,000 children are adopted every year, in the United States. Some of them end up searching for their biological parents and some don’t. But what if you find your birth family by accident?

That’s exactly what happened to 29-year-old Abbey Donohoe of Bettendorf, after one of her friends posted a message on Facebook about a baby given up for adoption 29 years ago.

“It was just a surreal,” said Donohoe. “Did I really just accidentally find my birth family?”

Paula O’Brien was the woman who wrote the post. O’Brien has been friends with Donohoe for four year. But neither knew they were actually related.

“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.”

And last week, she did.

“A chance post on Facebook. I posted something with the birth date, bringing to light that I had a niece out there somewhere, and one of my friends responded.”

That friend is Abbey Donohoe.

“I read it and I’m like September 19th, that’s my birthday,” said Donohoe.

The two women compared information and confirmed that they are related. O’Brien is Donohoe’s aunt.

“My family had prayed for this for years,” O’Brien said. “For 29 years we dreamed of this day and it’s here.””

Two Friends Find Out They’re Related

[KWQC 3/12/13 by Morgan Ottier]

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