Meet our precious great niece, Prudence Rose Young. Prudence was born without her left hand so I asked her parents, Travis and Sara, to share a little about living with and loving a child with a limb difference.
We were blessed with a beautiful daughter on September 21, 2012. Prudence was born with a limb difference. She was basically born without a left hand. We’ve never been given a definite answer as to why she was born without her left hand other than it was possible that her heart stopped beating for a split second which caused a vascular disruption that caused slowed circulation to that area of her hand enough to cause the malformation. Simple enough. She’s an amazing girl, and there is nothing that she can’t figure out. I used to worry that there would be things she couldn’t do because of her limb difference, but just today I caught myself wishing that she could do less because now she is climbing onto every surface she can get to…one handed. We are in BIG TROUBLE.
Prudence is now almost 16 months old. She is very active and she gets to meet a lot of other kids since she is at our Chiropractic Office quite a bit. I often catch myself watching other people to see what their reaction is when they see her limb difference. Kids are pretty animated in their investigations of her little hand. Children will whisper or point or stare or try to touch her small hand. It’s understandable. She has a difference that most kids don’t have. Right now Prudence doesn’t even realize she has a difference. Some kids ask what happened to her hand while others will just continue to look. We always give the same answer: “She was just born that way. It’s kind of like some people have blonde hair and some have brown hair. It doesn’t hurt her and she can do everything that you can do. She just does it a little bit different.”
When it comes to adults, a few will ask what happened but most just keep to themselves. We always tell people to please feel free to ask. We would love to have the opportunity to educate you on what her difference is, rather than have you feel you shouldn’t ask. If you are familiar with it, then next time you run across someone with some kind of difference, maybe it won’t be a big deal for you. We are so proud of Prudence. Any chance we get to talk about her is awesome. It’s not a disability to us…it’s a different-ability. We will teach Prudence to be proud of who she is.
All people are different, and you will see so many people in your life that have some sort of difference. It may be physical, it may be cognitive. Either way, they are still a beautiful person with a beautiful soul. Prudence is going to grow up understanding and appreciating the differences in people. She will be one step ahead of everyone else when it comes to seeing the beauty and capabilities in all people. She won’t see differences because she is different. I don’t think we could be more excited to watch her grow and thrive.
Live Simple, Love Like Crazy 
You have a beautiful niece. My daughter was also born without her left hand. She is now 12 years old. We are so blessed and happy to have her. And like our doctor told us at the time of the ultrasound “God only gives special babies to special people”.
Thanks for sharing your story.
I’ve not heard the phrase “limb difference”. I like it. And thank you for sharing your story and your beautiful little girl.
Aunt Rosemary,
Thank you so much for sharing our story. We are so lucky to have you in our lives! We love you very much!
Cutie Patootie! Perfectly and purposefully created. She is blessed to have such wise parents. I trust that since she is such a “Go Getter” at 16 months, we might see her at NubAbility Athletics Camp when she is 4? http://www.nubability.org
We sure hope she wants to go! Such a great opportunity for kids and their families!
Are you part of the lucky fin family???? Check out luckyfinproject.org and find lucky fin project on facebook!
We are part of them! We actually went to a meet up with 6 different Families in November. We proudly wear our 10 fingers are overrated shirts!
Our 4yr old daughter Melinda was born with a limb difference. Her left hand didn’t develop all the way. She has a wrist, part of her palm and her five nubs. She is missing the other half of her palm and her finger bones. It does not stop her at all! She amazes us everyday! There is NOTHING she can’t do!
I had a band student with a limb difference. He was a most amazing young man: an honor student, an accomplished musician (he played trumpet), a top athlete, and the kindest student I ever had. A friend and I used to argue over which of our daughters would marry Justin. :) He is now in the final stages of becoming a doctor. Just thought I’d share.
we are more like Prudence than different. We should strive to celebrate the commonalities among people than to identify the differences!!