SAN DIEGO, Calif. (CBS 8) - The eight-year-old boy you're about to meet makes friends really easily, but it takes him a while to trust adults. Rightly so - his hopes have been dashed too many times for him to count, and so far in his short life, no one has come through for him.
In this Adopt 8, meet Abel, who would like to move out of the group home he's in to start a new chapter of his life with a Forever Family.
Abel loves to play soccer. He's an active kid who burns a lot of energy, and he has no problem replenishing. Abel loves to cook, too. His favorite food?
"Chorizo," he said.
He's even memorized the recipe.
"You get meat, and then you put eggs on it, and then if you want cheese on it, you can put cheese on it. And then you wrap it in a tortilla," he said.
But what Abel is really hungry for is a Forever Family. He's been disappointed time and time again and is still dealing with the pain of being abandoned.
"He is, and he'll say when he gets stressed out and upset, why doesn't anybody want me, why doesn't anybody love me," his social worker said.
"As you can tell, he's active. He likes to run around, he likes to ride his bike, skateboard," his social worker said. "I'd really like a family for him that's got some other kids, because he does do well with other kids. He makes friends easily."
Abel also has a great imagination and likes to read a series of books called "Magic Tree House".
"You find this magic tree house somewhere in the woods and then they find a bug, and then when they get out of the tree house that's where they are," Abel said.
If Abel could write his own "Magic Tree House" story, his journey would take him to his Forever Family - a stable, loving home with parents to call his own.
"I have a lot of hope for Abel, I think he's got a lot of potential. And I think really, a big root of some of his issues, he just needs a lot of nurturance. It's common for our kids, even though they're eight, emotionally they're five. And so they need more affection and hands-on physical attention like a five-year-old would. They had somebody that rejected them and they just take that so personally," his social worker said.
Abel needs a stable, supportive family to help him reach new heights and teach him to trust again.
"I think if he had a strong dose of that and it was really consistent for him, he… who knows what he could do," his social worker said.
If you'd like to learn more about Abel or the adoption process, please call 1 (877) I-ADOPT-U.
