GUEST POST WRITTEN BY KATIE HINER

Mark has a megawatt smile. His caretakers love him, and, by all accounts, he endears himself to everyone he meets. He has a great memory and I have seen video evidence of a strong side-eye game and a killer sense of humor. In a video taken at his previous healing home, Mark’s physical therapist, seeing him struggling to use a walker for the first time, tried to distract him by telling him to sing “Happy Birthday.” As Mark prepared to take his first step, he told the PT, “When there’s cake I’ll sing.”

Like I said, the kid’s got jokes. He will need that attitude to overcome the adversity he faces. He has some special needs, including hydrocephalus, that will require specialized care and ongoing monitoring and therapy. But what he needs most is a forever family. And that’s why I’m writing this.

The day I first saw his photo, I shared it and asked, “Whose day would not be improved with that smile in it?” Now I’m asking a different question, with all the love a parent’s heart can hold for this amazing kid. Will you race to be his family?

Mark is all that really matters in this story, but I didn’t think I’d ever ask another family to start this race. My husband and I have been running toward him for almost three years. We love him. We recently included Mark, by way of a framed picture, in a family portrait taken on the rock overlooking the Potomac River where my husband proposed. “No mountain too high, no river too wide,” we said.

That commitment now includes overcoming the grief of knowing we don’t get to cross the finish line; we don’t get to be the family to bring him home. Posting this publicly goes beyond our family’s typical comfort zone. But we would go all the way back to the start and do it again to be able to share about Mark and introduce him to an adoptive family that will recognize and nurture this sweet, funny, engaging little guy and walk with him through all that lies ahead.