Carol Hassett has no childhood memories of her seven brothers and sisters.

She was abandoned by her alcoholic parents shortly before her first birthday.But that hasn't stopped her from wondering just what her siblings are like."My story is at 11 months old I was taken to the neighbors and they (her birthparents) never came back for me," the 62-year-old Lehighton resident, and former Buffalo, New York, native said.She was taken to Catholic Charities, where she lived in foster care until the age of 3, when she was adopted by Mary and William "Gil" Hassett, a well-educated couple. Hassett went on to have a good life with her parents growing up, but a little piece of her was always missing.At the age of 18, she was told by her father, who always wanted boys, to spread her wings and leave the nest - and feelings of abandonment crept in again.Hassett said that being the stubborn woman that she is drove her to join the U.S. Army. She then went on to become a senior electromechanical solder assembler and lived in various states around the country before purchasing her Lehighton home in 2007.But it was her parents passing in the 1990s and the fallout with the only family she ever knew that ramped up her search for the truth of who she really was and what family was out there."I didn't want to hurt my mom when she was alive," Hassett said, noting that her mom died in 1994. "She loved me to death."After her father passed away in 1996, Hassett got her first clue into her past when her cousin handed her a slip of paper that was in her parents' will. That paper revealed her former last name - Bakston.After that, Hassett began her search."I have nobody," she said. "I just exist. Good things happen, bad things happen. It's just me. When I die, who is going to bury me? That's why I pursued finding my real family a little harder."From what Catholic Charities says, there was four siblings and they were all taken away from abandonment and neglect and then there was three more and then there was me, so no one knew about me. So I thought."She did extensive online searches, combed through old newspaper records and found various resources, but kept coming up just a little bit short every time.That is until November 2016 when a Facebook message hit her inbox."I am an adopted child and my nephew stumbled across me on Facebook after I put my real name after my last name on there," she said. "When his father died, who is supposedly my brother, my nephew was out looking for the rest of his siblings because we come from a big family."Hassett and her nephew compared notes and realized that a connection was there. She went on to find a few additional siblings shortly after, including one in Reno, Nevada, and another in Dallas, Texas."It's hard," she said, fighting back tears, adding that the family she has found do not have the strongest, loving backgrounds that she was hoping for.She said some want to try to build a relationship, while others have chosen not to welcome Hassett into their lives."It's hard because don't hold the sins of our parents against the siblings," she said, noting that her one brother in particular is resentful of what their parents did decades ago and refuses to see her. "It's not our fault."Since then she has gone through a roller coaster of emotions, excited that she found family who she could bond with; sadness that this happened and played out the way it did; and reservations because she doesn't know these people like she would like to."This is a really good story for people who are adopted, who expect a miracle, because don't expect a miracle," Hassett said, adding that even though she has yet to meet any of her siblings face-to-face, she has spoken to them via phone and is planning her biggest leap of faith yet - packing up all her belongings and moving to Buffalo to be close to the nephew who found her, as well as some of her siblings."I quit a $100,000-a-year job in Michigan to pack up my Lehighton home to move to Buffalo to try and be part of a family that I had never known," she said, adding that she will be moving hopefully by the end of the year. "I'm taking a big leap of faith, but to me, family is important."Hassett will never know her birthparents, as both have passed away - her father at 66 on the floor of a bar where he worked; and her mother at 86.She said her story may not be the most heartwarming, but it is hers and she hopes it will help others who are looking for their birth families."Don't get your hopes up too high," Hassett said. "I was lucky enough to have some in my family who are interested in reconnecting, but you may find out there that your biological family has a life of their own and doesn't want to bring you into it."The story behind this is to go out to people who are searching for their families," she said. "It's going to be very emotional. It's not the family I long for, but you got to be ready for the disappointments. I'm going to make the best of it, though."