Gift of Love: Ryan

TYLER, Texas (KLTV) - Baseball legend Babe Ruth once said, “you just can’t beat the person who never gives up.” The same could be said for Ryan, 11.

“My favorite sports are baseball and basketball,” Ryan said as gathered up his gear at D-Bat Tyler.

Inside the batting cages he kept his eye on the ball, swing after swing. But outside the cages, he told us his focus is on something far more important: finding a forever family.

“I don’t want to go back to my parents,” the sixth grader told us as he sat down with us. “They were mean.”

In each Gift of Love interview we have with our East Texas foster children; we find it important we know what kind of parents each child hopes for in the future.

When we asked Ryan what kind of parent he wanted, he did something that we haven’t seen in years.

He pointed at the woman behind the net. His foster mother, Connie.

“She’s really nice and she takes care of us very well,” said Ryan. “She buys us nice clothes, she buys us nice shoes, she buys a lot of expensive stuff for us.”

After learning this, we decided to move these two a little closer together for the remainder of the interview.

As soon as Connie and Ryan got within hugging distance of each other, they embraced with a smile.

“He has a good heart… a very good heart,” said Connie.

Ryan never ended up describing his “dream parents” to us, but in this case, his foster mother helped fill in the blanks.

“The mom is going to have to give him a lot of attention,” she said as she playfully put down his finger pointing to her. “The dad just needs to play sports with him.”

Until he finds his forever home, Ryan stays focused on his sports and work at school. He told us his favorite subjects include learning about coding.

“I’m making my own coding game,” Ryan said. “I’m not finished but once I am finished, they said they might publish it for me.”

He’s swinging for the fences in all aspects of his life and hoping for the home run that lands him family he deserves.

For more information on how to adopt Ryan or other East Texas children available for adoption. Please email Brittney.Rountree@dfps.state.tx.us .