Lubbock Limbitless

04/02/2026

April is Limb Loss & Limb Difference Awareness Month! 🧡🧡🧡

03/22/2026

🏀 How cool is this? 🏀

FYI: team (who just made it to the Sweet 16 in the NCAA March Madness Tournament!) assistant coach, Nate Loenser, has an upper limb difference. 🏀
This is his fifth year with the Husker’s coaching staff. A former NBA assistant, Loenser plays an extensive role in nearly every facet of the program, including leading the Huskers’ individual skill development programs, opponent scouting, game planning and recruiting.

03/18/2026

Another great example of representation in social media as well as having disabled creators present in your daily life:

I was watching a video of Sarah Todd Hammer and in the video she slips her shoes on and I was going to run to the comments but of course she’s one step ahead of me and has the brand linked in her video description!

This brand has hands free shoes. I’m sure with more research I’ll come to find many hands free shoe options out there but I love planning for the future so that my little girl won’t have to struggle to find solutions when she needs them.

03/16/2026

Nothing like an adorable baby with 3 casts to really turn heads.

I guess my parents raised me not to stare or talk to strangers.

I don’t tell these stories for sympathy or to just complain.

If you didn’t know how to approach situations similar to these, now you do. Or if you have someone in your life who acts this way, maybe encourage different behavior.

Just because someone looks different than you doesn’t give you the right to stare. Nor does it give you the right to invade their personal space or personal privacy.

I understand that it’s human nature to be curious.
But curiosity does not trump common courtesy.

We were sitting at dinner, a new restaurant we’d never been to before. Major was doing really well considering she had just had surgery that morning.
A woman came up to our table and said
“Oh my gosh she’s so cute but what happened?”
Major’s Dad tried to give her a quick run down of what ABS was in this noisy restaurant. Her response was to absently listen and then respond “Oh well she’s cute.” Before walking away. We both sat there shell shocked, did that really just happen? Then we began to make up funny responses for if it happened again. The woman didn’t care what the response was. She was just being nosy.

On the shuttle ride to the air port, it’s 8am. A man sitting across from us decided to ask in our general direction “Awe look at him what happened?” I just ignored him. More annoyed by the fact that he couldn’t tell she was a girl despite her bright pink and purple SPARKLY casts and matching pink hippo outfit.

Lots of people stared, or gave us weird looks.

In the security line I made eye contact with a mom who proceeded to blatantly stare at us while she encourage her son to look over at Major. Her son had better manners than his mom and glanced at us before going back to minding his business.

Good rule of thumb, don’t ask women when their due date is, don’t comment on people’s appearance or weight, and don’t ask why or what happened to someone because of their appearance.

It’s like the State Farm commercials where people turn into their parents, I don’t care how old you are, or how “friendly” you are, or if you enjoy small talk. If you don’t know me, and I don’t initiate the conversation, then go on your merry way.

03/09/2026

It’s surgery week.

We’ve done laser eye surgery.
She’s had 3 sets of bilateral casts for her clubbed feet.

But something about stitches and a significant physical change is just hard to swallow.

I know this is for the best. I know that she will be able to tie her shoes and button her shirts and pants. Hold a crayon and pencil.

The unknown is terrifying.
If I could trade places with her I would.

I know she’s too little to remember.
But I’ll remember.

Please pray for us or keep us in your thoughts as we go through another battle.

2 double arm casts and one leg cast for 3-4 weeks.

03/01/2026

Went to the park today, there were lots of kids, which Major loves to watch play. But the star of the show was Holly the dog. Major loves animals, and so of course we walked around the whole park trying to meet Holly. We ended up playing with Holly’s siblings who sat down to pass a tennis ball back and forth with Major.

“Her hands are like that.” Holly’s little brother asked
“How did they get like that?”

So we got to talk a little bit about ABS and I made him count his fingers, and we talked about Major’s fingers.

THEN the coolest thing happened, their dad, Dan, knew what ABS was!! So we got to talk about it and it was the first interaction I’ve had with a complete stranger that I didn’t have to educate.

Best park visit so far.

02/26/2026

The number one reason I started Lubbock Limbitless was to find and create a community of people that understand what’s it’s like to have ANY kind of physical disability. We’re all just trying to get through life, and luckily we don’t have to reinvent the wheel and we certainly don’t have to do it alone either. I’m excited to see what advice comes from this series and I hope everyone can get something from it.

02/18/2026

I don’t know what I’ll do when Major notices her differences.

Her Dad and I and all of her family and friends are raising her to celebrate her differences so hopefully she doesn’t ever feel sad about them.

Of course every girl finds something about themselves that they don’t like, especially in the digital age. I always thought my nose was too big. I know a lot of my generation is trying to rewrite the standards. Making all types of bodies and differences visible and showing that they’re beautiful.

I just know that I’m going to do everything I can to make sure she knows she loved and that the people rallying behind her are people she can trust with any feelings she has.

Text says “emotional resilience does not come from forced positivity; it comes from being allowed to feel everything: sad | frustrated | unsure | proud | different | strong; all of it”

02/11/2026

Dani Aravich is a Paralympic athlete who has competed in both the Summer and Winter Games. She has participated in track and field (Tokyo 2020), cross-country skiing (Beijing 2022), and the biathlon (Beijing 2022). She also worked as a member of the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Committee’s digital media department during the Paris Games.

She helped secure the 2034 Olympic and Paralympic Games in Salt Lake City and continues to advocate for greater accessibility and disability visibility on behalf of Paralympic athletes.

Join us in cheering on the Paralympic athletes in March (but for now, cheer on the Olympic athletes)!

01/31/2026

I’m not sure if anyone else has experienced this but, you know when you buy a new car and then all of a sudden you start seeing that car everywhere?

The make and model was probably always around but you didn’t notice until it became relevant to your life.

Disabilities and differences are the same way.

You don’t realize how many people there are in the world that have disabilities or differences until someone in your life does.

Having conversations, representation in media, and making these topics apart of our everyday, gives people the opportunity to become comfortable enough to ask questions or broach the subject without fear of saying the wrong thing or feeling like there’s a boundary there.