When Jordan was born six years ago, her brother was almost four years old and his friends had a lot of questions. One of the easiest ways to explain Jordan’s limb difference to kids was, “Remember Nemo and his lucky fin? Well, Jordan has a little arm just like his fin.”

These days, that explanation doesn’t always make sense to kids. A lot of little kids have NEVER seen the movie! I know that seems shocking, but it isn’t in Disney’s DVD rotation right now and there are kids falling outside the Nemo loop. So it was thrilling to hear this announcement:

Thank you Disney for bringing Nemo back this Fall and giving us a chance to celebrate limb differences again with the help of a very cute and brave clown fish.

Birthdays are awesome. I love them. That’s why I tend to make a big production out of them. Jordan’s been lucky to spend three out of six of her birthdays at Disney World. Each time she’s had a chance to dress up like a princess and celebrate. But until yesterday, she’d never had a traditional birthday party at our house. She had never held a birthday fundraiser before. We’ve never brought our online and in-person world together on one day before. The result? An awesome day… And we raised:
 $2,355! Jordan had a blast at her party. We are both amazed and touched by the outpouring of  support you gave to Camp No Limits. Our fundraiser was an attempt to raise enough money for two more kids to attend camp next summer and you helped us raise enough for SIX. That’s huge. I know a six-year-old who is very excited and exhausted from an awesome day.

Our Winter the Dolphin party was super fun. The kids started the party watching the Dolphin Tale movie. They ate a ton of popcorn and pretzels (and ocean jello) and I even let them drink fruit punch in little cups with a straw. (Allowing kids to drink in my living room is rare!) They didn’t stay in the room through the entire movie. I offered the kids other non-movie watching activities in case they felt the need for distractions.

They watched most of it. But the thrill of playing in Jordan’s room to wear princess dressed, making dolphin necklaces and coloring dolphin pages were too much fun.

The cake was also a huge success. Our favorite cake decorator made one with a really cool depiction of Winter:
I have a thing where I hide the cake from the birthday kid so they don’t see it until we sing happy birthday. I had posted a picture of the cake on Facebook ahead of time and one of the kids at the party saw the picture before Jordan. It was kind of funny to hear one girl announce she knew about the cake before Jordan did.
After gift opening and a bit more playing in Jordan’s room, the party was complete. Jordan had a blast and her eight friends were fabulous.

Even more fabulous? You! Thank you for supporting Camp No Limits and helping Jordan feel incredibly proud of the accomplishment of raising so much money for our favorite non-profit. Camp is so special to us and the amazing number of people who pitched in to let us know it’s special to them too is just incredible.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Jordan is crazy excited and I’m picking up the house like a banshee for Jordan’s first big birthday party with friends. We’re just three days away from her big day and since we’re having it at our house, I’m focused on things being clean so little girls can run around the house without finding strange piles of dog hair or magazines/catalogues/mail. Jordan has been incredibly focused on helping me with the clean up efforts because she wants to decorate!

So far, here’s the plan for the big Dolphin Tale birthday party. Jordan has a small group of girls from our neighborhood, her school and her old preschool attending. I know she’d love even more people, but I had to cap it at 8 friends. I also told Cameron he could invite a friend or two if he’d like.  We’re going to watch the Dolphin Tale movie and if anyone gets bored, I’ll have a table full of Winter the Dolphin-themed coloring pages on a table. During the movie, we’re also going to make dolphin necklaces.

Afterwards we’ll eat Winter the Dolphin birthday cake and let the kids run around and play. I’m also planning to make these little ocean Jello cups.

I don’t know how long the kids will really pay attention to the movie… I know Jordan will want to watch the whole thing, but it’s almost two hours long. We’ll see what happens!

In Jordan’s excitement, she made some Play-doh dolphins to decorate the drawing table and won’t stop begging me to put up streamers around the house. I bought dolphin plates and cups and ocean-related treat bags. I found all of them on the Oriental Trading website. I’ve been keeping track of dolphin-related party ideas on Pinterest… I think I’m going to use the drawing and coloring pages.

If you have any good ideas, send them my way. Also, we’re three days away from the end to Jordan’s big birthday fundraiser! Thanks again to everyone who has been a part of this awesome experience. The Born Just Right world comes together for wonderful reasons.

Winter the Dolpin has become a very special part of our household. Ever since we had a chance to meet Hanger Prosthetics and Orthotics’ Vice President Kevin Carroll at the Amputee Coalition conference earlier this year, Jordan and the rest of our family haven’t been able to stop talking about the inspirational dolphin. Hanger was handing out stuffed animal Winter dolphins and the children’s book about her story. We read the book all the time and Jordan has taken Winter all over the place. The toy sat next to Jordan while we watched the Dolphin Tale movie last month.

Fast forward to last week… and a very special time with Winter sealed our complete devotion to this animal and the rest of the Clearwater Marine Aquarium. Thanks to Carroll and his assistant Carol Wade, we were able to have special time with the dolphin during our visit last week.

Our friend Ashlyn who we met through this website recently got a brand new myo-electric arm from Hanger. She had a chance to join us as we met Winter and the aquarium’s other dolphins Panama, Hope and Nicholas.

CMA kindly gave us an incredible tour guide. We learned about how Winter came to the aquarium along with all of the other animals that live there. Very young dolphins who are rescued cannot be released back into the wild because they don’t have the survival skills that mother dolphins can give. A number of the other animals that live there have similar reasons on why they are unable to return to the wild.

After our tour, the kids had a chance to spend about 8 minutes with Winter. Jordan decided she wanted Winter to see her swim hand so she put it on before their meeting. We captured it all on video:

The kids were smitten. The family who got to watch were touched. We feel blessed for the special opportunity. Thanks again to Kevin and Carol for making it happen. Here’s a collection of photos I and a member of the aquarium took during their time together:

By the way, the Clearwater Marine Aquarium’s focus is on helping marine animals in need. Its mission is to rescue, rehab and release. You have a chance to adopt an animal and help support the aquarium’s mission. Donations are helping the aquarium expand its dolphin area thanks to Winter’s popularity. Hopefully all of this attention is bringing a lot of wonderful developments for the animals and the organization.

“I wasn’t emotionally prepared for that,” is what my husband Randy said after we had a chance to watch a sneak preview of the Dolphin Tale movie in 3D. But the kids were ready and happy to enjoy the experience.

As a parent of a child who has COMPLETELY bought into her personal connection with Winter the Dolphin, this movie was special. As a parent of a child with a difference, this movie was special. We got to follow a fictional version of how Winter got hurt and recovered with the help of a prosthetic tail. It is tender and kind and I got weepy at least three or four times. Winter is special to our family and every parent I have ever talked to with a special needs kid of any type (with or without limb differences) who knows about Winter feels the same way. She represents overcoming a challenge and surviving with the help of those who care around her.

I feel incredibly lucky to have met Kevin Carroll who was a big part of making the prosthetic tail for Winter. He’s the reason Jordan really feels a special connection after the Hanger Company (where Carroll works) gave Jordan a stuffed Winter and a children’s book about her story. There’s a quick video at the end where you can see him. Jordan looked away at the moment and was really bummed to have missed it. Here’s her review:

I can’t tell you how excited we are about the new Dolphin Tale movie. Our obsession started when Hanger Prosthetics gave Jordan a stuffed animal that looks like Winter the Dolphin who is the star of the movie. The company also gave Jordan a book with Winter’s story… how as a baby, she was swimming in the ocean and got trapped in fishing line when a fisherman found her. He saved her life by calling the Clearwater Marine Aquarium. The organization was able to help nurse Winter back to health, even though her tail fell off. Amazingly, she learned how to swim again – but in an unusual side to side way instead of the natural up and down style. The aquarium knew Winter would have long term damage if they didn’t find ways to help her swim naturally. That’s how a number of experts, including Hanger’s Kevin Carroll, came up with a prosthetic tail for Winter. She wears her prosthetic tail a bit every day to keep her spine and muscles healthy.
Winter’s survival and endurance is awesome and it’s caught the attention of the special needs community. We’re very excited about the movie. It comes out on September 23rd and I think it’s incredibly important we make sure any and every person who is connected to the special needs world goes to their movie theater and watches the movie during the first weekend. There are some other big movies out that weekend, but none of the others have Morgan Freeman, Ashley Judd, Harry Connick Jr. and Kris Kristofferson. Have you seen the trailer? It’s awesome:

Jordan reached over and whispered those exact words into my ears while we watched Disney’s Tangled this evening. She’s really looked forward to seeing the movie… And I couldn’t wait much longer to go. Her simple happiness while watching the movie was so fun to watch. Pretty magical hair can go a long way with an almost five-year-old girl.

The whole family enjoyed the movie… Even Cameron. And you know a movie is a hit when the eight-year-old brother enjoys it. Seriously, it’s a simple and happy Disney story. It includes catchy songs and golden hair. After the show, Jordan was begging for a haircut. (You’ll have to see the movie to understand that part.)

Jordan wanted to share her review of the movie: “It was beautiful and funny. And I liked the popcorn. It was the best day of my life because I had never seen the movie before. The movie made me feel happy and funny.”

We’re wrapping up a family-filled weekend before we focus on the busy time before Christmas. It includes a lot at work while we get the semester wrapped up for our college students. I have six graduate thesis, projects or proposals to read through this week. That might make it tricky for me to find enough time for blogging. I promise to do my best!

Jordan had a great birthday! She got to see The Princess and The Frog with her friends… And it really was a sweet movie. She and I danced and grooved throughout the movie. Jordan clearly likes jazz music. How cool is that? I had a gut feeling that she’d groove on the movie, so I ordered her a Princess Tiana birthday cake. And it was a HUGE hit.

Jordan had a great time getting to do close to anything she wanted – she got to watch an Elmo movie about birthdays, she got to watch Nick Jr., she got to eat movie popcorn for lunch. It was a happy time in between traditionally stubborn, “pretending not to hear” four-year-old stuff.