One Arm Softball Player
Category
🎥
Short filmTranscript
00:00 On October 18th, 1998, my life was changed for two reasons.
00:05 One, my daughter was born, my first daughter.
00:08 And second, she was born with a rare congenital condition
00:12 called focal milia.
00:14 My wife was a high-risk pregnancy.
00:17 She had three ultrasounds.
00:19 None of the ultrasounds detected anything.
00:23 We go to the hospital, have a healthy baby.
00:25 And as she was born, a bunch of doctors rushed
00:28 into the room, rushed our baby out,
00:31 and I get a nurse coming to get me.
00:34 The nurse grabs me by the shoulder
00:35 and leads me into the room where my daughter's laying
00:39 and prepares me.
00:40 And she says, "I want to prepare you
00:42 "for what you're about to see."
00:43 And I asked her, "What's wrong?"
00:45 And she told me, "Look, I have a daughter
00:48 "with a missing arm, with two digits on her little arm."
00:52 Right then and there, as a father,
00:54 you start to wonder why.
00:57 You start to wonder, is there something that I did
01:00 in my past that made God do this to me?
01:03 Very quickly, you also start to realize,
01:08 I now have a child that may have a disability
01:11 that needs help.
01:12 We keep growing up, and at six months of age,
01:15 my daughter came out of the bathtub
01:17 and she was laying on the ground,
01:18 and I held a ball above her, and I dropped it,
01:21 and she caught it.
01:22 And I thought, man, that's pretty good.
01:25 Being in athletics all my life, I said,
01:28 if she has that good hand-eye coordination,
01:30 there's something to that.
01:31 So I did it again, thinking it was a mistake,
01:32 and she caught it again.
01:35 Growing up, she played several sports.
01:38 She played soccer, football, flag football at YMCA.
01:41 She played basketball.
01:43 She played softball, of course.
01:45 And she really fell in love with the sport of softball.
01:48 She was able to receive several accolades
01:53 in high school.
01:55 She was the first ever female athlete
01:58 at Lanesville High School to be All-State First Team.
02:02 She was also the first ever limb different athlete
02:05 in the state of Indiana to become
02:08 a First Team All-State player in any sport.
02:10 She was also the first ever athlete,
02:13 limb different athlete, to play
02:14 in the North versus South All-Star game.
02:17 And then come along, we have Cincinnati Christian College.
02:21 I had offered her a full-ride scholarship
02:23 to play softball for them.
02:24 We could never imagine her being a softball player.
02:27 As a parent, to get a college scholarship in a sport,
02:31 very rare, with having one arm,
02:33 couldn't have imagined that as a parent early on at all.
02:38 My wife and I conceived Kaitlyn out of wedlock,
02:41 and a lot of thoughts through my mind were,
02:44 is it me, am I being punished?
02:48 Why am I having a child that has one arm?
02:52 But as time has progressed, I see that
02:56 God has given us a child that not only is a joy to us,
03:00 but plays a sport at a high level
03:02 that has one arm and is an inspiration to other people.
03:05 So the joy, or the pain that I felt
03:08 back when I thought God was punishing me
03:10 is now a joy to be able to watch her
03:13 be a motivational speaker to others,
03:14 to watch her perform at a high level
03:17 with able-bodied athletes.
03:18 It is a joy to watch her talk to other children
03:20 that come up to her after a game.
03:22 The pain has been washed away because of
03:25 what she's been able to do through the glory of God
03:27 and what he's been able to give her.
03:29 (soft music)
03:31 (soft music)
03:33 (soft music)
03:36 (soft music)
03:38 (soft music)
03:41 [BLANK_AUDIO]