Orphan Davion Only, 15, will choose his adoptive family from a shortlist of TEN and could be in his new home by Christmas



Florida's Eckerd adoption agency will narrow down the 10,000 inquires to 100 before making a shortlist of ten



Florida families with experience raising traumatized children will get a priority, as will couples who have already passed adoption home studies



The family of Davion Only have come forward asking to adopt him, but were deemed ineligible

They revealed that his mother gave birth to him while in a drug rehabilitation program and died of a heart attack in June

Since he spoke in church, his adoption agency has been inundated with tens of thousands of requests from people eager to call Davion their son



Home-bound: Davion Only, 15, seen on The View, will help choose his new adoptive family from a shortlist culled from some 10,000 inquiries, and he will likely be moving into his new home by late December

Davion Only, the 15-year-old Florida orphan whose courageous plea for a family has touched the hearts of million around the globe, will undoubtedly get his wish - it's only a matter of time now.

Eckerd, the Florida adoption agency handling Davion's case, has been inundated over the past few weeks with over 10,000 requests from people asking to adopt Davion.

Some of the teenager's relatives also have came forward, but were determined to be ineligible to take him in.

According to Davion's caseworker, Connie Going, couples who have already passed adoption home studies will be given a priority, along with families who have experience raising teenagers or children who had suffered trauma.

Eckerd has been fielding phone calls and emails from people living around the nation and beyond, but the agency will be giving special consideration to Florida residents who could keep Davion in touch with his friends and relatives, Tampa Bay Times reported.

Over the next month, officials will narrow down the piles of inquiries to 100. Going will then present 10 different options to Davion, who will help choose his adoptive family.

His caseworker said he could be moving into his new 'forever home' by Christmas.

Davion said he was 'amazed' that so many people would be interested in becoming his parents, but the teen insists that this is much bigger than him.



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Strict criteria: Davion's caseworker Connie Going (right) said couples who have already passed adoption home studies will be given a priority, along with families who have experience raising teenagers

The boy is only one of 101,000 kids currently in foster care across the U.S., and all of them are waiting for a family.

‘I know what it's like to have nobody, with no light at the end of the tunnel, no one who wants you,’ Davion told Tampa Bay Times Thursday. ‘I just keep saying, “There's only one me. But all my friends, all the other guys at the group home, all these other kids need families too.”’

The 15-year-old has expressed hope that his story will inspire people everywhere to consider opening their homes and hearts to foster kids and giving them a chance.

Davion has been in foster care almost all his life and only discovered the identity of his crack addict mother, La Dwina 'Big Dusty' McCloud, earlier this year, weeks after she died from a heart attack.

She gave birth to Davion while she was in a drug rehabilitation program and he was taken by the authorities when he was just a few months old.



He had no idea he had a huge family, including two sisters and an elder brother, living just a few miles away from his residential home in St Petersburg.

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Emotional: The sister of orphan Davion Only, Demetrius McCloud (left), talks about her brother with her aunt Doris Barnes at their home in Clearwater, Florida. The family revealed they had a reunion with him in August

Tears: McCloud cries as she speaks to MailOnline about her brother, who famously appealed for a new family

But MailOnline can reveal he had a tearful meeting with his big sister, his aunt and his grandmother at a restaurant in August, around three months before his touching church plea, which became an internet sensation.

In an exclusive interview from their home in Clearwater, Florida, Davion’s biological family have told how they are determined to be a part of the youngster’s life.

His grandmother Carole Ware, 71, said: 'We met with Davion in August at a local restaurant in Clearwater around, three months after his mom passed.

'It was truly beautiful, we cried and cried for about two hours and he was so happy to know he had family.



'We were desperate for him to know who we were and that we loved him dearly. We took lots of pictures together out in the parking lot and we gave him one of his mother, his aunty Doris and sister Demetrius together.

'He was such a lovely young man. At one point he said to me, "Grandma, don't cry, it's going to be alright. I am going to be your first grandson to go to college and I am going to make you proud of me, I promise you that'".

Plea: Davion stood up in front of his church congregation to ask for someone to adopt him

'I said to him, "Son, that’s the best thing I could ever hope for". It would make his mother so proud if she was alive today.

'We really want to be a part of his life. If nobody from our family can adopt him for whatever reason, then we want to be able to have regular contact, even if we have to be supervised while we do it. He needs to know his real family, it is so important.'

Davidson's eldest sister Demetrius tearfully told how she spent the meeting, trying to explain why her mother had been forced to put him into care.



The 36-year-old restaurant worker has eight children of her own, giving birth to her first when she was just 12. Many of them have been in and out of care and she also went through the system when she was younger as her mother battled a crippling crack cocaine addiction.

She said: 'I just wanted him to understand that mama had no choice. She fought against drugs her whole life and she was in a dark place when he was born.



Family: La Dwina McCloud, Davion's mother, is pictured seated left and right with her daughter Demetrius



Battle: La Dwina McCloud eventually lost both her legs and eyesight to diabetes. Davion also has the disease

'She was in a drug rehabilitation program at the time so they took him away when he was a few months old. It was a long time ago, but I can clearly remember him as a little baby and I can remember how upset mama was.

'The fact she couldn't raise him doesn't mean she didn't love him, she talked about him every single day. Her dying wish was that we would be able to get him back into our family, somehow.

'One of our neighbours was a foster parent and she tried to get her to adopt him on a couple of occasions, but the authorities wouldn't let it happen.

'A few days before she died, she gave me the name of his case worker and told me to contact her, so even on her death bed he was on her mind.



'When we all met up with Davion in the restaurant one of the social workers who was present told us mama used to ring every year to check on how he was doing. She always used to say her life would be complete if she could get him back.

Big family: Davion's mother La Dwina is pictured with her brother Deltarra McCloud 'A few members of my family including my aunt Doris and my cousin Christie Kelly have made inquiries about adopting him in the last few days, but they both have criminal records from years ago, so they can't.

'But my grandmother has a clean record and she has raised loads of kids, so she could have him.' She added: 'I used to live in St Petersburg and it is terrible to think he was there all along, just a few blocks away and I didn’t know.' Since his emotional plea at St. Mark Missionary Baptist Church St. Petersburg, Davion's story has touched the hearts of hundreds of thousands of people across the world. He stood up before the entire 300-plus member congregation and begged for a family to adopt him and give him a real home. He told the congregation: '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… I know God hasn't given up on me. So I'm not giving up either.'

Passionate: His grandmother Carol Ware said the family were desperate for him to know they loved him

Desperate: She said if no one from the family was allowed to adopt him, she hoped they would stay in touch Eckerd's Carlton Manor residential group home in St. Petersburg, Florida, where he lives with 12 other teenage boys, has been inundated with more than 10,000 calls and emails.

Families in countries including Canada, India, Mexico, Australia, Great Britain and Iran have all made contact to enquire about adopting him. Davion's plea caused so much traffic that the agency's website nearly crashed, forcing it to move to a bigger server. Speaking to CNN on Thursday about the phenomenal reaction, Davion said: 'People sometimes don't know how hard it is and how much we try to do good.

'It's not really cool not to have anybody. I'm pretty happy and excited that people are calling and asking to talk to me and possibly be my family. 'I just want people to love me for who I am and to grab me and keep me in their house and love me no matter what.' For years prior, Davion's portrait was taken by photographer Tim Boyles and has been one of many in the Heart Gallery - an organization which helps children in foster care find moms and dads.

Hopes: Christie Kelly, Davion's cousin, talks abut her adopting him - but says they face problems in the process

Family: Doris Barnes, Davion's aunt. The family explained his mother was in a drug rehab program when he was born and could not look after him. He was taken into care when he was a few months old

Struggle: Demetrius McCloud sobbed as she said the family had had no choice but to put him into care

Davion, who is pictured smiling on the beach and throwing a basketball in the air, writes that his favorite school subject is science and that when he grows up he wants to be a police officer.

His case worker Connie Going said the teen has always longed for a family but he didn't seek one earlier because he hoped La Dwina would come back for him one day.

He started to look for his mother using his birth certificate at a local library in June. He found her obituary and saw that she had died aged 55 in Clearwater just weeks before.

Before that heart-breaking discovery Davion was short-tempered and didn’t try in school. He was also around 40 pounds overweight, which was affecting his health.



But learning his mother had passed away, gave him the wake-up call he needed, so he started to improve his attitude towards education, obtaining top grades and lost lots of weight.

Young years: Left - Davion's grandmother Carolyn Ware is pictured with her children, Deltarra and Doris. Right - Doris Barnes, La Dwina (Davion's mother) and Deltarra McCloud, who are all siblings



He said: 'When I found out she died, I was kind of angry.'

He remembered thinking to himself, 'This is ridiculous. How did I not know?'

He added: 'I'm not going to use all my bad stuff that happened to me as an excuse, but I'm going to use it as motivation to push me more and give me more courage.'

So while La Dwina’s wild lifestyle meant she was not present for his upbringing, she actually had a positive influence on him in death.

And for the first time MailOnline can disclose the circumstances surrounding La Dwina’s passing and shed some light on her deeply troubled life.

We can reveal she died in a Clearwater hospital from a massive heart attack, after going blind and losing both her legs because of severe diabetes, a disease which Davion also has.

La Dwina got her nickname Big Dust because of her size. Standing at six feet 1 inch tall and weighing more than 260 hundred pounds, she was an infamous figure in her neighbourhood, a tough part of Clearwater.

Passing: The order of service for La Dwina McCloud's funeral. She died this year of a heart attack Care: McCloud had spent time in nursing homes, including Comprehensive Healthcare of Clearwater

Discovery: Davion learned of her death after getting her birth certificate and finding her obituary

But her life was blighted by a serious crack addiction, which turned her into a habitual criminal. In the years leading up to Davion’s birth she was arrested scores of times and convicted for offenses including robbery, theft, assault, battery and cocaine procession. She was sentenced to at least 15 stints in prison.

Demetrius explained: 'Mama battled with drugs most of her life. Everything that went wrong for her was down to the drugs, it was an illness that she had to try to live with.

'Towards the end, she had turned things around and was trying to make amends, but by that point she was very sick with the diabetes.



'When we saw Davion he actually said if he’d have known his mama was out there and she was sick, he would have left the home and come to find her so he could take care of her.'



La Dwina’s former landlord Willie Parker said: 'She was certainly a character, everyone in the neighborhood knew who she was.

Searching his whole life: Davion is pictured in 2005 when he was just seven years old and looking for a family

Still looking: Davion had a second picture taken for his adoption profile when he was 15 where he describes his love of basketball and cartoons along with his desire for a family who are 'nice and fun'

'But she had a serious drug problem. I tried to talk to her about it, you know, help her beat it, but it didn't work. She would go into hospital, get cleaned up, then she would come out and I would try to get through to her, but she didn’t listen.

'At that time she had one leg and she had to get around in a wheelchair. But even that didn't stop her. If you saw her wheeling herself up the block, you knew what she was doing, she was going to buy drugs.'

Her former neighbour Tracy Davis said: 'She was a nice woman, but drugs got the better of her and she ended going in and out of prison. At least three of her four kids spent time in care, because she just couldn’t cope with looking after them.'



The last few months of Big Dust's life were spent in the Clearwater Comprehensive residential home. She was incredibly ill, but according to her family she never stopped thinking about Davion.

Her sister Doris Ward, Davion's aunt said she would talk about him every day. She added: 'I know she never gave up on finding that boy. My sister had her faults and made her mistakes, we all have, but people seem to think she didn’t care and Davion had no one in the world who loved him.

Fighter: Davion, pictured during a Sunday sermon at St. Mark Missionary Baptist Church, said he changed his life, lost weight and began studying harder after he learned of his mother's death

Search: Davion's profile on the Heart Gallery is one of many children who are looking for a permanent home

'That has really upset us as a family and that is why I have tried to adopt him. The problem is I have a charge for violence from about 13 years ago, so I am apparently unsuitable, even though I have put that in my past and raised three sons.



'My cousin Christie has also tried, but she has a drugs charge from years ago, so even though she has custody of her grandchildren, they won’t consider her.



FINDING FAMILIES: FOSTER CARE BY NUMBERS There are currently 399,548 children living in foster care in the U.S. The average age of a child in foster care is nine years old Fewer than 10 per cent of children adopted from foster care are between 14 and 17 The average number who age out of the U.S. foster care system each year is 20,000 Fewer than 10 per cent of children adopted from foster care are between 14 and 17 Number of children who live in the foster care system in just the Pinellas and Pasco counties of Florida is 3,500

'But my mom has never done anything wrong and despite that no one from social services has asked her if she would take him. I just don’t understand that at all.



'The only person who seems to be able to find anything out is my cousin Maurice and that’s because he is a Sheriff.



'All we want is for Davion to know that he is loved. Even if no one from the family can look after him, we want to be able to see him and spend time with him.



'But as it stands, we have been told our visit back in August was a one-time thing and we have no idea when we might get another chance to make contact.



'At the end of the day, he knows we are out there now and we are only a few miles away. Whatever happens, he will come and find us when he’s 18 and we will all be reunited again. That is what my family desperately wants.



'I just hope some good comes of all this publicity.'

For more information about the teenager or the other foster children in the area, call Eckerd (866) 233-0790 or the Heart Gallery 1-866-233-0790 (toll-free) and 727-456-0637 local



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