CEDAR CREEK, Texas — Every week on KVUE, we feature a different child in the Texas foster care system, in hopes of helping them get adopted by a forever family.
Damien is a sweet, playful 10-year-old boy in Texas foster care who is in the fifth grade. He loves dinosaurs, which is why KVUE’s Hannah Rucker met him at the Dinosaur Park in Cedar Creek, east of Del Valle. The park allows visitors to stroll through a trail, enjoying life-size dinosaurs with panels explaining each one in detail.
Damien said he first became fascinated with dinosaurs when he saw the movies “Jurassic Park” and “The Land Before Time.” He remembers when he was little, before he entered foster care, he got to dig up some fossils with his sister.
“Before I got here, I used to dig dinosaur bones. And I’ve only had one, but then my sister smashed it. But then, when I was 6, I found another one, but then I lost it,” Damien said.
Damien likes math class at school and likes going shopping and looking nice. He also enjoys video games and watching YouTube videos. He is hopeful he can find a forever family before he enters middle school.
“Maybe someone will see this, and they will think about adopting me,” he said.
Damien is caring and kind and said when he gets older, he could see himself somehow working with other kids in foster care.
“Because I like helping kids because they help me smile,” Damien said.
To learn more about Damien or to put in an inquiry to adopt him, visit his page on the Heart Gallery of Central Texas. And catch his full story on KVUE Midday on Friday.
KVUE launched the Forever Families segment with Partnerships for Children (PFC) in June 2020 to highlight children in the Heart Gallery of Central Texas who need secure and permanent families. Every day, there are nearly 1,000 children waiting to get adopted in Central Texas, according to PFC.
PHOTOS | Forever Families: Meet Damien
Editor’s note: The children who are in the Heart Gallery program and featured in KVUE’s Forever Families segments are children who have had every effort made on their behalf to connect them with family or others in their community to provide options for permanent, adoptive homes. Through no fault of their own, that hasn’t happened yet, and so in partnership with the Department of Family and Protective Services, we collaborate to bring awareness to KVUE viewers about these children in the hopes of finding them permanency before they age out.