Meet my sweet Mark ~ born in August 1973 ~ and came to our family as a foster baby after it was discovered that he was Down Syndrome and needed a home. I actually took Mark straight out of the hospital when he was 2 weeks old as his foster Mom. He was the cutest little thing - very tiny and with red hair. There was some thought for a short time that his birth mother might take him, but when that didn't work out, and after Mark had been with us for two years, we adopted him to make him an official member of our growing family.
It's funny - back in those days so little was known about DS and there wasn't a lot of support for families. My pediatrician tried to discourage me from adopting him - telling me things like "They have lots of heart problems" to which I said "Well you are a pediatric cardiology specialist - does he have heart problems?" and, of course, the answer was no. (This was when Mark was 2) He also told me that 'they' have a higher incidence of leukemia ~ I decided that was something not within my control and why worry about 'what if's' ~ At some point you have to turn that stuff over to God and not sit and worry about it.
Mark is very high functioning ~ I was told that it was a great thing for him to grow up in the middle of this huge family because he had so many other children to 'learn' from and model behavior after. I just had to laugh ~ my kids certainly taught Mark a lot and not all of it was approved by me! LOL
I believed then, and still do today, that Mark is a gift from God. He's sweet, kind, and forever childlike and our family is blessed to have him. He's certainly taught our family lessons we might have never learned had he not been our son/brother.
His sisters Amy and Ali have legal guardianship of him now. He lives with both families - has his own room in each of their homes, doubles of everything he needs and so when they pass him back and forth, they only pass 'him' and not a bag load of 'stuff'. This has been a wonderful arrangement for Mark ~ he gets to 'vacation' with each family and which ever sister doesn't physically have him at a given time, he'll call her his 'Angel' and say that he misses 'her' ~ but then he goes off to 'her' house and suddenly his other sister is his 'Angel' and he misses 'her'... LOL
I'm allowed to 'have' him sometimes ~ I'm told by my daughters that I overfeed him (LOL) and don't provide enough 'structure' for him (means I let him do what he wants)..... ah yes, funny how the tables turn when THEY become the grown ups eh? :)
Mark is very healthy and I expect him to live to be an old man. I'm so blessed that I don't have to worry about what will become of him when I'm gone ~ My daughters will be fighting over who's 'hogging him' and who gets him next when I'm long gone.
He's a remarkable young man and in the company of some remarkable siblings. Hope I meet up with that old pediatrician in Heaven someday so I can tell him that.
God Bless you Mark ~ always.
