00:00I was born without arms and legs.
00:02I'm three foot six.
00:05I want to share my story with families
00:06that have children born like me.
00:09Putting a smile on someone's face,
00:11can't even explain the feelings, it's just amazing.
00:14Being different is awesome.
00:21My name is Ryan, I'm 40 years old.
00:24I'm a husband, father, and I was born with a disability
00:27called congenital limb deficiency
00:29that made me born without arms and legs.
00:32Do you want hot sauce for yours, Ryan?
00:33Yes, please.
00:37All right, you're better at this than me.
00:39Actually, I have arms and legs, but they're much shorter.
00:42This is for my cooking show, Cooking With No Hands.
00:45The kind of questions I get are always range from like,
00:49how do you drive, how do you eat, how do you have children?
00:53And I mean, just any question you can think of,
00:56how do you go to the bathroom?
00:57And everybody's like, oh, doesn't that bother you?
00:59Isn't that annoying?
01:00The hardest thing about living with no arms and legs
01:02is that people see me without arms and legs.
01:05I don't want you to look at me as someone with no arms and legs.
01:07I want you to look at me as my friend, my colleague,
01:11or some really cool guy that has a sweet sneaker collection.
01:17Hey, let's start on a different pancake.
01:20When I was first born, the doctors took me away from my parents.
01:25And my mom asked the doctors, like, where's my son at?
01:30And they said, there's been a problem,
01:32and we wanted to talk to you about this
01:35before we bring him in here.
01:35And she said, no, please bring my son in right away.
01:44And they said, well, your son was born without arms and legs.
01:47And before we give him to you, we want you to know
01:50that it's OK if you don't want to keep him.
01:53And my mom said, what are you talking about?
01:54That's my son.
01:55Bring my son now.
02:00They said that Ryan will never have a regular job
02:03or be able to go to school or drive a wheelchair.
02:06He'll never be able to drive a car.
02:07He'll never be able to have a family.
02:17So when somebody tells me I can't do something,
02:18that's just that fire, that fuel to make sure I can do it.
02:24So how'd you do, Ry?
02:27I was sweating.
02:29I met my wife when I was 20 years old.
02:32What are you working on?
02:33I did this one earlier.
02:34Oh, that's sweet.
02:35I saw you post that.
02:36When I first met Ryan, I didn't see him as being different.
02:41We just connected.
02:45We just kind of hit it off right away, and that was it.
02:55My kids are my life.
02:58Like, everything I do, I do for them.
03:01How he moves through life and the way that he was born
03:04is so natural for us.
03:08We just see him as our dad.
03:12He's taught us so many different things
03:14that other fathers might not teach us.
03:17You can't go around and complain about the little things
03:20that other people might be able to.
03:22He really changes your outlook on life.
03:30Alexa, turn on office.
03:34So this is my office, where I work at home, work on stuff for social media.
03:39I started collecting shoes when I was a kid.
03:41Luckily, they don't get dirty because I don't walk on the ground.
03:45And my feet haven't grown, so I've been able to save a bunch since I was young.
03:48A few years ago, I was at work, and someone ran up to me, and I said,
03:53hey, my cousin's wife is having a baby.
03:56And they just found out that she's going to be born without arms.
03:59Would you mind meeting with her before the baby's born?
04:03And if you don't want to do it, I completely understand.
04:06And I said, of course. I would love to.
04:16Hey, what's up?
04:17Are we going up this way?
04:20This way?
04:20How you doing?
04:21Hi!
04:22Hey, how you doing?
04:26Hi, guys.
04:27We found out about Ryan when I was pregnant.
04:29We were so excited to meet his family because there was so much unknown.
04:34Can you say hi?
04:37Can you tell them hi?
04:37How about what you want?
04:38I love it.
04:39Boo!
04:43Did you want to go upstairs?
04:44And what did you say?
04:44Yes!
04:48Gabriela, she just turned two in August,
04:50and she was born with no arms and shortened legs.
04:54Nothing seems to stop her.
04:57I mean, she gets around the house as much as anybody else can.
05:02She plays with her toys that she has.
05:03I want to dance.
05:05Clay, I want to dance with somebody.
05:07Clay, let me cue some.
05:08Let's build it up.
05:09You like this one?
05:18Yay!
05:20Our youngest son, Owen, is three and a half,
05:23and he was born with congenital limb differences affecting all four of his limbs.
05:28Don't you do it! Don't do it!
05:29Get out!
05:31For Owen to even see a role model just like himself.
05:35Get it!
05:36Every time Ryan's here, you know, it lights up Owen.
05:40You're going to be so much fun.
05:43Pull one right here.
05:45Are you going to knock it over?
05:47Can you get it?
05:48Knock it over!
05:49Get set, go!
06:00Who's going to win?
06:04Oh shoot!
06:06I won!
06:07Oh, you won!
06:09Like when I was younger and growing up, my parents didn't know anybody that was born like me,
06:15so I just love that I'm able to meet kids that are born like me and
06:23maybe teach them a few things that I've learned.
06:25And Ryan's just an invaluable person to us.
06:28And they give me pizza, so it's really good.
06:30Yeah.
06:32Say bye, Ryan!
06:33Bye!
06:34Bye!
06:36Boom!
06:37Love you!
06:38Love you!
06:40Today was amazing.
06:41We built some blocks, walls, and we knocked them down.
06:45Just like we're going to do every day in our life.
06:47We're going to face some challenges.
06:48We're going to build them up and we're going to knock them down.
06:52It was a comfort to meet somebody who was never letting anything stop him.
06:58There's a saying, you know, failure is not an option.
07:03My saying is failure is a must.
07:07You can't learn anything in life unless you fail at it.
07:10You try and you fail.
07:11Bye!
07:12Say bye!
07:13Say love you!
07:13Bye!
07:14When I sit back and think about all the adversity I faced and everything that I've had to deal with,
07:19I'm definitely proud of myself.
07:24You know, fighting through all those things and being who I am today.
07:28You know, fighting through all those things and being who I am today.
07:29You know, fighting through all those things and being who I am today.
07:30You know, fighting through all those things and being who I am today.
07:31You know, fighting through all those things and being who I am today.
07:32You know, fighting through all those things and being who I am today.
07:33You know, fighting through all those things and being who I am today.
07:34You know, fighting through all those things and being who I am today.
07:35You know, fighting through all those things and being who I am today.
07:36You know, fighting through all those things and being who I am today.
07:37You know, fighting through all those things and being who I am today.
07:38You know, fighting through all those things and being who I am today.
07:39You know, fighting through all those things and being who I am today.
07:40You know, fighting through all those things and being who I am today.
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