This month’s Waiting Child is an artist looking for family who will nurture her unique talents.
Reporter Eric Clements met with Dakota, a 14-year-old living with autism in search of a forever home.
Dakota is super creative and there’s no project she won’t dive right into.
But Dakota doesn’t settle for making paper swans, she was folding a fidget spinner when MTN News paid a visit.
“I did a good job making this! Ahh, that was hard!”
She also loves working with clay, even though it gets everywhere: "Eww! The clay is sometimes messy!”
But one of Dakota’s favorite things is to look at the rides that come to the fair each summer. Her favorite is a ride called the G-Force.
“The tallest ride yet! It’s even taller than the Zipper and the Kamikaze and the Ferris Wheel, and all those other rides!”
And she has a solid-gold sense of humor: "Knock-knock. (Who’s there?) G-Force. (G-Force who?) G-Force fair ride!"
Heading into her freshman year at Sentinel High School, Dakota says she’s ready for a forever home and a family to whom she can say "that I love them. And that I care about them.”
If you’d like to learn more about Dakota, call Youth Dynamics in Missoula at (406) 728-9672.
