Fifteen-year-old Jean strode into the Queens Center mall yesterday ready to make an impression. He had insisted on wearing a navy blue blazer, though it was so oversize it created a three-inch tent on each shoulder. When a camera pointed in his direction, he flashed a profusion of teeth.

Jean, 15, gets a minifacial before having a photo taken for the Heart Gallery, which seeks adoptive homes for older children.

He was there, he said, looking for a family. Over the four and a half years he has spent in foster care, he has dreamed that the family might live in Manhattan, where “everywhere you go is a story,” but he could offer no criteria. They would be people who “just treat me like a son,” Jean said. He listed some qualities that might attract a family: He is a good speller, for example.

“I just want to jump into their heart and stay there ” he said.

for more see New York Times Article by Ellen Barry