🥺💙 SHE WAS BORN WITHOUT ARMS — BUT AT JUST FIVE, R.E. HAD ONE BIG DREAM: TO RIDE A BIKE 🚲✨

Ruth-Evelyn Pranke, known as R.E., was born nine weeks early without arms due to a rare condition called bilateral phocomelia.

From a young age, she learned to do everyday things using her feet — eating, brushing her teeth, coloring, using a phone and even giving high-fives. 💗

But when R.E. was five, she wanted to do something that seemed much harder:

She wanted to ride a two-wheel bicycle. 🚲🥹

Her family turned to Gillette Children’s Specialty Healthcare, where prosthetist Michelle Hall helped create a special harness connecting R.E.’s shoulders and back to the handlebars.

Instead of using her hands, R.E. learned to steer by turning her body and guiding the bike with her shoulders. 🌈

And then came her first ride.

Her mother remembers the giggle. 💙✨

That bicycle wasn’t about replacing something R.E. didn’t have. It was about helping her do something she simply wanted to do — ride like the other kids.

As she grew, R.E. continued discovering new possibilities. She swam, danced, skied and became a Children’s Miracle Network champion.

People may notice what makes her different.

But R.E. has always had a different way of seeing it:

Don’t focus on what she doesn’t have. Look at everything she can do. 💗🌷

Sometimes, all a child needs is someone willing to look at a dream and say, “Let’s find a way.” 🥹🚲🌈