Meeting Challenges: Dwarfism Bonds Brothers

Jan. 29, 2009— -- Will and Max Graf have grown up together as brothers, even though they are from opposite sides of the earth.

"When you are in trouble or something, he'll be there," Will said of Max.

"We were made the same way inside," Max said. "We just look smaller, that's all."

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Will and Max are dwarfs. Each is around 3 feet 7 inches tall.

They are 13-year-old students at Avonworth Middle School in Pittsburgh, where they blend in with their larger classmates and have a network of friends who both look out for and learn from them.

Will was born in October 1995, to Suzanne and John Graf, with a type of dwarfism called achondroplasia. The Grafs had no history of dwarfism in their families. Their other children, Charlie, 6, and Laura, 14, are average-size.

To learn what problems they would face in raising Will, and to gauge what his needs would be, Suzanne and John began attending meetings of Little People of America. They were welcomed into the group and encouraged by what they learned.

"You start to feel that, wow, this is going to be okay," Suzanne Graf said.

The Grafs are in the hospitality business. They own and run the Priory Inn in Pittsburgh, a former German Catholic Church that had been closed to make way for a freeway. What they had learned about dwarfism made them want to open the doors of their home to another child -- one who needed help and would also understand what Will was going through.

Looking through a newsletter of children with dwarfism, the Grafs saw a picture of Max, who had been abandoned in South Korea and was about to be placed in an institution.

"His picture literally just jumped out of the page," Suzanne Graf said. "I think it was just meant to be. Which is what we tell Max -- that he absolutely was meant to be with our family."