BOYD COUNTY, Ky. (WSAZ) -- The holidays magnify the importance and significance of family.

But hundreds of children right here in our region will spend Christmas without parents of their own. Austin is one of those children looking for his forever family. Austin is an athlete at heart. While he enjoys basketball, baseball, softball and hunting, there's one sport that tops them all.

Here’s Austin's conversation with Carrie Cline:

"My favorite sport is football. That's the one I'm the best at. I like playing. I'm kind of short for that, but stick with running back since I'm fast.

"I can talk to people really well. I like helping people, especially people who come from the same background as I have. It's easy for me to understand what they're going through. I like talking to them and helping them out."

Carrie: What do you want to be when you grow up?
Austin: I wanted to go to the Marines, but after I thought about it after I've not always had the best life, I was hoping I could help kids and maybe go into counseling or social work and maybe be able to help kids through their problems in their life since I know how it is to have to go through losing family and people you love. I like a family. I never really had a family, but when I had a foster family, it felt good.

Carrie: What's the longest you've lived in any one place?
Austin: Four years. When people see my story, I hope they think they could possibly help me and that they could not look at me as a bad person that I'm going to end up in jail one day and not look at me as a delinquent who doesn't deserve anything because of what they've done in the past, but someone who can fix what they've done, turn around and go right.

Austin says he wants to go to college and pursue that degree in social work. Right now, his favorite subject is history.

If you'd like learn more about Austin and how you can adopt him or any of our featured teens, just go to: the Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services on the Internet at https://apps.chfs.ky.gov/snap/ or call 1-800-232-KIDS.