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  • 16/06/2025
THIS INSPIRATIONAL father is proving that life really has no limits – despite missing parts of both his arms AND legs. Ryan Hudson-Peralta was born with Congenital Limb Deficiency, a rare condition that gave him severely shortened legs and arms without hands. The now 3ft 6”, 40-year-old describes himself as a loving father, husband, motivational speaker and positive mentor to others – and he has definitely been living up to his word. Ryan still manages to drive a car by himself, make his way up and down the stairs, use his mobile phone AND conduct his full time job of being a successful user-interface designer at Rocket Mortgage in Detroit, MI. Residing in Michigan, Ryan even takes it upon himself to visit and help other families across the States who have children living with similar conditions.

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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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