I recently came across the article about Davion, a 15-year-old orphan living in St. Petersburg, Florida.  Having spent his life in the foster care system, Davion took a pastor’s message that God helped people that helped himself, and therefore took to a local church to make a plea that someone adopt him.

This story caused me to take pause to think about both Davion’s bravery, but also how discouraging it is that the children in our foster care system feel the need to take to a pulpit, a platform, a stage to market themselves as valuable humans worthy of a home and family, something so many take for granted.  To stand in front of a group of strangers hoping that one of them might want you or know someone who might want you is utterly heartbreaking.

At the time of this post, Davion has not yet found a home, though it is reported that several people have inquired about him.  This is discouraging to hear though as it would be a joyful ending that Davion had found a home but equally troubling at the precedent it would set.  Would foster parents or foster homes take to “auctioning” off children, or exploiting them in some way to move them along?  However it also raises the concern that perhaps the foster care system is too “out of sight out of mind” for most Americans, and Davion’s step to the front of the church is symbolic of how the entire foster care system should be a more central point of conversation and policy making in this country.   However, in doing this a balance would have to be found that bring foster care to the spotlight without exploiting the children who are a part of it.

I hope Davion is matched with a family–someone to take him to football practice and provide him what he has waited so long to find.  That would be my hope for every foster child.  The question is, short of every child in the foster care system having to sell themselves on a stage, how do we take the burden and place the system on the stage instead?

Related articles

• Florida Orphan Pleads for Family to ‘Love Me Until I Die’ (abcnews.go.com)