Please, Someone, Anyone: Adopt This Kid
Davion Navar Henry Only is a teenager with a troubled past who wants nothing more than to be part of a family. Any family.
Born into the foster system, the son of an inmate and an unknown father, Davion has had many temporary families, but never a permanent one.
His caseworker Connie Going readily admits Davion was not an easy child, constantly acting out and getting poor grades.
But the experience of finding his birth mother this past summer completely turned his life around.
Sitting in front of a library computer, Davion finally came face to face with the woman who brought him into this earth: La-Dwina Ilene "Big Dust" McCloud.
Her mug shot revealed her height (6'1") and weight (270lbs.), and the accompanied text revealed her crimes ("petty theft, cocaine").
And her obituary revealed the date of her passing: June 5th, 2013 — only a few weeks before Davion had finally found her.
It was that experience that convinced Davion to do a 180.
He lost 40 pounds, got his grades up, and stopped misbehaving. And then he set his sights on the last piece of the puzzle.
With Going by his side, he arrived one Sunday last month at the St. Mark Missionary Baptist Church in St. Petersburg where he planned to ask the congregation to adopt him.
Inspired by the proverb "God helps those who help themselves," Davion, now 15, stood up in front of 300 churchgoers and pleaded for a home:
I’ll take anyone. Old or young, dad or mom, black, white, purple. I don’t care. And I would be really appreciative. The best I could be. [...]
My name is Davion and I've been in foster care since I was born ... I know God hasn't given up on me. So I'm not giving up either.
In a statement to HLN, Davion's adoption agency, Eckerd, said they've received hundreds of phone calls and emails from people "across the world" who had been touched by Davion's story.
Unfortunately, none of the inquiries have so far led to Davion's adoption, but Eckerd is "hopeful that these inquiries lead to a family for Davion and raise awareness for the needs of the hundreds of other children waiting for families in Tampa Bay area."