Last Sunday morning, CBS Sunday Morning aired a video report on the life of Nick Vujicic, who was born without arms or legs. In the interview, Vujicic announced that his unborn son Kiyoshi James Vujicic has ten fingers and ten toes – everything that is supposed to be there is.
“After we got married, we fell pregnant and we were not planning that at all. We were planning to have kids two years into our marriage,” said Vujicic in the video. “We weren’t anxious, but we were definitely anxious to see if he has ten fingers and ten toes.”
The video showed him playing golf, jumping into the pool from the diving board, typing 60 words a minute with his toe, pouring egg into a frying pan, sky-diving, and surfing.
While everyone else easily forget that they have arms and legs, Vujicic said that “I don’t see myself as a disable person. I really forget that I have no arms and legs.
“I embraced having what I had and what I mean is that being thankful for what I do instead of being angry of what I don’t have,” said Vujicic, who as a motivational speaker and evangelist has taken this message to millions of people around the world.
His second book “Unstoppable” just made the New York Times best-selling list.
Despite his present successes and fame, life for Vujicic was never a good ride.
CBS News interviewed Vujicic’s parents, Dushka Vujicic and Pastor Boris Vujicic, about their reactions after finding out their child’s physical condition at birth.
Boris Vujicic, Nick’s father, said, “What was crossing my mind just looking at him is wondering what kind of future this child will really have is just going to be like a vegetable just sitting there.”
Throughout his childhood, Vujicic dealt not only with challenges of school and adolescence such as bullying and self-esteem issues, but also struggled with depression and loneliness, according to Lifewithoutlimbs.org. He constantly questioned why he was different than all the other kids surround him.
As a result, Vujicic would come home for weeks crying and didn’t want to go to school. Some days he would hide in the garden at the school hoping that no one would see him, he said in the video interview.
At age 10, Vujicic’s father took him to the bathroom to take a bath and he said that he wants to be left alone. Vujicic then sled underneath the water and faced down.
“He put me in and shut the door and that was the last time that I think I would see my family. And I said that I can’t do it and I’m done,” described the 30 year old motivational speaker in the video.
“I just couldn’t do it. I saw in my mind my mom and dad and brother crying at my grave if I actually went through with it,” he said.
According to lifewithoutlimbs.org, Vujicic’s strength and passion he has for life can be credited to his faith in God. Also, his family, friends and the many people he has encountered alone the way have also encouraged him.
“I found the purpose of my existence, and also the purpose of my circumstance. There’s a purpose for why you’re in the fire.” Nick wholeheartedly believes that there is a purpose in each of the struggles we each encounter in our lives, and that our attitude towards those struggles, along with our faith and trust in the Lord can be the keys to overcoming the challenges we face.
Now, Vujicic has fulfilled his dream as a motivational speaker and evangelist, traveling around the world to share the good news of Jesus Christ. He has boarded the plane for over 900 times.
“For me, speaking engagement is not about how many people come, but about knowing that I’ve come here for one person at least,” said Vujicic in the CBS report. “I’ve seen the grace of God. I’ve seen him taking even the most broken pieces of my life and making it into something beautiful. I think I went through that so I can share that story with the world as well, because [there is] a lot of hurting people out there. This life is full of great things we can experience if we just gave it a shot.”
