Today is clubfoot day, the day we celebrate our everyday heroes and work to raise awareness for clubfoot.  1 in a 1000 babies are born with clubfoot making it the second most common birth defect.

This is has been a particularly rough year for our family.  Sporty’s latest surgery was harder on her than we expected and her recovery has taken longer than we had hoped but she keeps fighting because she was made to run.  She’s never been ashamed of her differences but as she gets older, missing out on activities to treat clubfoot gets more difficult.  We certainly could not have made it through her recovery without our village who constantly visited Sporty and took her on walks in her wheelchair and encouraged her recovery.

Her big plans on World Clubfoot Day…practice pitching for softball and cheering on Young Jedi’s tee-ball game.  Maybe next year I’ll get it together enough to put together a picnic celebration for our local clubfoot friends and all of our friends who help us get through the journey.

When I heard this song by Alessia Cara, it screamed Sporty to me.  I’ve put together this photo montage of our journey so far with Sporty.  The first photo of her untreated feet still makes her shudder, but I show her it as a reminder of where she started in life.  That her making her travel team and her developmental team, her running the soccer field, or doing her school’s running club, they mean so much more than they do for most kids.  I know our journey probably isn’t over but hopefully it will be a little less exciting for a while so that we are able to enjoy all of the things that a little girl who was made to run loves to do.

“You should know you’re beautiful just they way you are,

And you don’t have to change a thing, the world could change it’s heart

No scars to your beautiful, we’re stars and we’re beautiful.” – Alessia Cara