On a Sunday, he'd decided to stand in front of St. Mark Missionary Baptist Church in St. Petersburg, Florida, and make a public plea for a family. All summer, he slumped on the floor in a bedroom that wasn't really his, playing Madden football on a hand-held PlayStation, trying to pretend he didn't really need anyone anyway. The only person he thought might still care. He told ABC News then that, despite his age, he still needed a parent. "I think it's a human's right to be loved and wanted. He typed his mother's name and found arrest reports for cocaine — then her obituary. She had died just a few weeks earlier. "I'll take anyone," Only told ABC News then. "Old or young, dad or mom, black, white, purple." But six months after he became the face of adoption, Davion was still floundering in foster care. Agency workers called it "the Davion effect." He said then that he'd cried in the library, but had decided then and there that his family's history wouldn't define him. I'm still gonna need you down the road." She even adopted one herself — 10-year-old Taylor, Davion's best friend from the group home, who had suffered through two failed matches. "Connie, Davion and their new family appreciate the outpouring of support and well wishes," the Going family said through the spokesperson. When you don't feel that you are, it's hard to succeed in life." "I just wanted to let people know that it's hard to be a foster kid," Only said previously. "Just 'cause I'm not going to be a kid doesn't mean you're still not my parent," he said. "People sometimes don't know how hard it is and how much we try to do good." And the Bible they'd given him at his group home. The national response was overwhelming, with tens of thousands of calls made to adoption agencies seeking information on the teen.
– This time, the happy ending looks like a permanent one: A Florida orphan who became an Internet sensation is being adopted by his longtime caseworker, reports ABC News. Davion Only first made a splash in 2013 when, as a 15-year-old, he made an emotional pitch for a family. After an overwhelming response, an Ohio family agreed to take him in as the first step toward adoption—until Davion got into a fight with one of the family's kids, explains the Tampa Bay Times. He returned to Florida's foster system, despondent, and eventually opened up to "Miss Connie," who had been his caseworker for more than a decade, though was no longer in that role. Fast-forward to the present, which finds Davion living with Connie Going, her two daughters and one son (the latter adopted), along with their four dogs and four cats. Davion's adoption is expected to be finalized next week. Family bliss? Nope, but she's fine with that. "I'm OK with messy and difficult," she tells the Tampa newspaper, which has a lengthy story on Davion's new home. "You just have to have your armor on all the time, but it's more than worth it. And every day things get a little bit better."