Tonight marks the end of the summer Olympics in London. As with every Olympics, I always hate to see it come to an end; however, it is always amazing to look back to so many incredible moments and stories that otherwise we would have never seen or heard about. As we watched part of the closing ceremonies, we were reminded of so many athletes that we saw in this year's games that had overcome great difficulties in their lives to get to where they were today.
Probably one of the most inspiring stories
that came out of this year's games was the story of South Africa’s Oscar Pistorius, a double amputee running
on carbon fiber blades. Pistorius had both legs amputated as an infant due to a
congenital condition in which he was born without fibulas and wasn’t supposed to be able to even stand. However, years later, we are all witnesses to an
incredible athlete who after years of encouragement from his mother, never gave up and was granted permission to
run in the 2012 London Olympics.
If you watched him race, you couldn't help but
be inspired by his determination.
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| Photo- Getty Images | by Michael Steele |
One of the best photos that emerged from Twitter during the Olympics was of Pistorius and a little girl. This was such a precious photo where he was encouraging another young child with a similar condition.
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| author unknown |
Not only was Pistorius noted during the Olympics, but another inspiring young woman in this year's games was a Polish table tennis player by the name of Natalia Partyka. Natalia was born without a right hand and forearm, and was also given the privilege of competing for the first time in this year's Olympic Games.
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| Associated Press| Photo by Sergei Grits |
Story after story were shared of athletes that could have let life's challenges stop them, but didn't. Rather than allowing a loss to define who they were, instead, they chose to take life's challenges and face them head on.
These stories above reminded me of a video that a friend of mine passed along to me the other week of an adoptive family (neither of us know who they are, but their video was on YouTube and we both fell in love with it). They have adopted a number of children with medical needs from the waiting children program in China (one in particular with missing limbs). I'll share this video and a little more tomorrow, but it will certainly inspire you. I promise it will be worth waiting for.
(**Spoiler alert-- this family's video was shot to their re-make of one of the songs in tonight's closing ceremonies at the Olympics-- I promise you'll want to watch this video more than once. =) More on this video and story coming tomorrow.
Enjoy the last bit of your weekend!
