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David seeks adoptive family
Jim Edminson, Baptist Children’s Homes of North Carolina
July 09, 2015
4 MIN READ TIME

David seeks adoptive family

David seeks adoptive family
Jim Edminson, Baptist Children’s Homes of North Carolina
July 09, 2015

Most boys who come to Cameron Boys Camp plan to return to their families. While they are living at camp, they go home to celebrate the holidays with family and regularly visit. David’s circumstances are different. He visits with his foster mom April.

“Miss April is great,” David says. “She’s nice and is helping me with lots of things. Her dad Woody and I are buddies. We pick on each other and cut up lots.”

David is in the custody of Chatham County Department of Social Services. He is free for adoption and is longing to be a part of a family. His social worker Meagan Albert says, “David is super sweet.”

Not knowing his father and his mom surrendering custody and moving away has made David feel insecure and unsure about his future.

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“I need to be accepted by a family,” David says. “I need to be loved without me being judged because of where I’ve come. I want a family to adopt me and give me a new start – a new beginning.”

Thirteen-year-old David has been at camp since last fall. Cameron Boys Camp was a place where he felt he could work on his problems – especially his anger. He had been bullied in school and needed a safe place.

Cameron Boys Camp is located on 902 wooded acres near Southern Pines. Cameron is a wilderness camping program designed to provide boys an opportunity to work out problems through a highly-structured alternative education program.

Living at Cameron provides the freedom of being outdoors and the structure of small groups with constant, caring supervision. Boys live in groups of ten with counselors called “Chiefs.” With the help of their peers and Chiefs, campers learn discipline, positive behavior patterns, and self‐worth.

“When I first came to Camp,” David says, “I didn’t know how to open up. But the longer I was here, the more I began to talk things out about my life. The Chiefs encourage us to get our problems out and begin dealing with them.”

April says she notices the difference. When David visits, the duo work together on the things he learns at Camp. David says, “I’m working at being more patient and practicing kindness.”

The seventh grader loves chemistry. He has enjoyed Cameron’s on-site education program and has benefited from the one-on-one support.

But despite his successes, David still longs for more.

“Camp is a wonderful, wonderful place,” David says. “but it’s not a home. Yes, we are like family in many ways, but I’ll leave one day. When the other boys leave, they go to their families. I want a family and a home, too.”

The Chatham County adoption services webpage reads: “Adoption is a means of providing permanent placement for children who can never return to their family home. Adoptive homes are carefully assessed and, when approved, they must comply with state policy and legal procedures for adoption. Adoptive homes provide love, hope, and permanence to children who are legally freed for adoption.” It goes on to state: “Each child deserves a ‘forever’ family.”

“We are looking for a ‘forever’ family that best meets David’s needs,” social worker Albert says. “Someone who clicks with David and he clicks with them.”

For more information, call Meagan Albert at 919-545-8583 or email her at [email protected].

You can help share hope with children like David by making a gift to Baptist Children's Homes of North Carolina. Please give online at bchfamily.org/givenow to help immediately.

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