Teen Who Begged to Be Adopted

I promise you, this is a story that makes me giggle: the teen who begged to be adopted in a video that went viral a couple years ago is prancing into Spring 2015 with a new family—the adoption case worker who’s known him since he was seven years old.

Davion Only, now 16, stated his case for being in a loving family of his own back in October 2013, when he stood up in front of a St. Petersburg, Fla., church congregation, introduced himself, and declared, “I know God hasn’t given up on me, so I’m not giving up either.” At the time, Davion, who’d spent years bouncing between foster homes, had just found out his biological mother, a convict who’d been in prison since the day she’d birthed her son, had died. A videotape of his plea became a viral sensation, coaxing some 10,000 people to call his foster care agency, looking to be his forever family.

One, a minister’s family in Ohio, took Only in, but changed its mind about adopting Davion after he got into a fight with one of his would-be siblings. Over the next year, Davion passed through four different foster care homes before making a special request of his adoption case worker, Connie Going: he begged her to adopt him—a plea he’d made every year since he’d met her a decade ago.

Going told Davion “no” all those years, but this year, something different washed over her: “In adoption there is a ‘claiming moment,’ when you know [someone is] your child,” she told Yahoo Parents. “When he called me to ask, in that moment, I just knew. When he asked me, my heart felt this ache and I just knew he was my son.”

Going gave Davion a trial run around her three kids and, after seeing them hit it off, the 52-year-old divorcee started making arrangements to seal the deal: she rented a bigger house, got a lawyer and formally started adoption proceedings. Davion has been living with his new family since December, and he’ll be officially and legally Only’s son on April 22.

“I want him to know he is unconditionally loved for who he is, the way he is,” Only told Yahoo Parents. “The changes he chooses to make in his life, and the choices, are his to make. As a family we will be there through it all, the good and the bad for our lifetime. He is home.”

Can I just say I absolutely adore Connie Going and her son, Davion? This is what family and parenting is made of: two hearts, dedicated to loving the other, the adult committing to raising, caring for, guiding, disciplining and, most importantly, loving her child, unconditionally. I would never discount the importance of a birth/blood connection, but I can tell you as an adoptee, one doesn’t need blood or DNA to make the love shared between a parent and child any deeper. I know for sure that the connection between a parent and child of adoption just… is.

Congratulations, Davion! You were so right when you said, “God hasn’t given up on you.” Indeed, he’s given you and your mother an incredible gift. Know this. Treasure it. This kind of love is priceless.

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Denene Millner

Mom. NY Times bestselling author. Pop culture ninja. Unapologetic lover of shoes, bacon and babies. Nice with the verbs. Founder of the top black parenting website, MyBrownBaby.

One Comment

  1. I Just saw this post so I apologize for commenting so late. Thank you for writing about our story. Davion is an amazing young man. He is doing well and our family is blessed. It has not always been easy but the journey is so worth it all. Thank you again…

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