It's a happy ending, just in time for the holidays!
Davion Only, the Florida orphan whose heartbreaking plea for a family made national headlines back in October, will be spending Christmas with a prospective family, the adoption agency handling his case reports.
"I'll take anyone," 15-year-old Only told the congregation of St. Mark Missionary Baptist Church in St. Petersburg, Fla., in September. "Old or young, dad or mom, black, white, purple. I don't care. And I would be really appreciative. The best I could be. ... I know God hasn't given up on me. So I'm not giving up either."
After The Tampa Bay Times wrote a story about Only's quest to find a forever family, news outlets around the country picked up his story. In the days and weeks that followed, thousands of families began calling Only's Florida adoption agency, Eckerd, asking to adopt him. The volume of family applicants was so great that Eckerd hired a public relations firm to handle media inquiries and a 60-person volunteer phone bank to field calls, according to the Tampa Bay Times.
Only's caseworker, Connie Going, told the paper in late October that the agency was painstakingly going through each and every application, giving special consideration to families that had already passed home studies, those that had experience with teens and those from Florida, near Only's friends and his mentor.
"We are following through with every offer, explaining the process to people and directing them to have home studies done," Going told the Times. "I have no doubt that, because of these inquiries, we will find a family for him."
On Friday, Eckerd announced that Only recently moved in with a prospective family, and will spend the holidays with them, ABC News reports.
"He is enjoying getting to know the family," Eckerd spokeswoman Terri Durdaller told ABC.
Calling the process a "step by step progression," Durdaller added that the agency's "first priority is ensuring that Davion builds a strong relationship and has a successful adoption with his forever family."
An Eckerd spokesperson also confirmed the placement in an interview with the Daily Mail Online last week, saying, "Davion is excited to be spending the holidays with a perspective adoptive family."
UPDATE: March 25, 2014 -- Earlier media reports sourced by The Huffington Post indicated that Davion would be spending the holidays with "a prospective family," but the Tampa Bay Times reports now that those claims were exaggerated and that the foster family did not have any plans to adopt him.