Kate Whiddon and her boyfriend cried when their 4-year-old son took his first steps.
You might think four is a bit old for a child to take their first steps, but Katie’s son was born without arms or legs, so this is a special case.
Katie had only been pregnant for 18 weeks when she went to the doctor for an ultrasound and got some terrible news.
Camden was born with phocomelia, a birth defect in which a person does not grow an arm, a leg, or sometimes more than one limb.
Katie, a mother of three, was afraid that her son would find it hard to do even the simplest things in life after the diagnosis.
“When I first found out he wouldn’t have arms or legs, I thought that he would just be a vegetable … I didn’t know what to expect,” she told PEOPLE.
“I had just turned 19 and I didn’t know, ‘Am I gonna be able to be good enough for him?’”
Even though she was scared, Camden turned out to be a brave and inspiring little boy. Nothing in the world could stop him from going.
“When he was around 2 months old, I had him laying on my bed … I saw him out the corner of my eye and he was hitting the toys with his arms,” she said.
“I started to cry, I was just so happy and that confirmed that he was gonna be able to do things.”
Camden’s first steps were caught on video, and the video quickly went viral all over the web. In it, Camden is standing in front of Cole Greene, who is Katie’s boyfriend. Cole tells the cute little boy to walk, and in the background, his sister is happy.
In the video, you can hear an excited Camden say, “I’m coming to you,” an excited Camden can be heard saying in the video. “I’m walking!”
Camden moves slowly toward Greene and Ryleigh, Greene’s 3-year-old sister.
It was a magical moment that showed Camden once again that he can and will get through anything that stands in his way.
”We started crying, we were so proud,’ Whiddon told PEOPLE.
“I didn’t know when that day would come. I didn’t think he was ready for it yet and I was just so shocked and happy. It was so exciting and [his sister] Ryleigh was over there jumping, excited.”
People all over the world have been very interested in Camden’s first journey. The video has been watched and shared a lot, and Whiddon is sure that her son is going to do great things.
“Call it mother’s intuition, but I feel like he’s gonna be one of those motivational speakers and now, giving him the exposure will give him a platform so when he’s ready to speak for himself he will have people who actually want to listen to him and care about what he has to say.”
Camden is a great example, and there’s no doubt about that. If this boy can get past what’s in his way, why can’t we all?