Hi, my name is Hannah Platner and I am a congenital bilateral amputee! I was born and raised in Shandong province of China for nine years of my life! I had lived in an orphanage during the time I resided in China. In 2015, I was adopted by a family in Arizona! Unfortunately, due to circumstances and difficult home situations, I didn't live with them for very long. I suffered mentally and struggled to find my identity. My physical health started declining, and my will to live was almost nonexistent. So, in order to help me, my parents enrolled me in a Christian program called Adult and Teen Challenge. At first, I was afraid and felt super helpless. I was afraid of what and how my future would look like, if I had a future at all. But everything changed when I started making connections with the staff working at the program and hearing all the stories of other girls who were in similar situations as me. I realized that, first of all, I was not alone, that Jesus loved me, and that I needed to stop making everything about me. Because in doing so, I had made myself become the victim rather than the victor of my challenging experiences. I realized the importance of having a relationship with Christ and finding my identity in who He said I was! One of the biggest blessings that came out of being in Adult and Teen Challenge was when I met a girl named Selah. Selah and I became close friends while attending Adult and Teen Challenge, and during that time, Selah's parents would come and visit her. On one of her first parent visits, her family had asked about me (although I didn’t know at the time). Briefly, Selah shared my story with her family, and they felt like I was meant to be a part of their family. Of course, they never took that lightly and spent a year and a half praying about it. While all of this was happening, I realized that my parents gave up custody of me and no longer wanted to be involved in my life. Although that was a blow, I knew that something better was waiting for me. So, in 2023, I officially found out that I was going to be adopted by Selah's family, who was from Montana! In June of that year, I met the people who would be my family and was able to move in with them! Three months later, I was officially adopted in the Red Lodge court! Although the transition was extremely difficult and challenging, I can see how God was working in my life the whole time and how His timing is perfect! Because of where I was at in life due to my age and grade in school, I lived with them for only one year since I had graduated high school in 2024. I am still in contact with my family and absolutely adore them! I have wonderful little siblings and strive to be a good example for them. I have been working at a Christian conference center on the coast of Oregon as a housekeeper for a year now and just moved back home to be with my family for a little while while I work on gathering some support from my friends and communities! Being a housekeeper at CBCC has really humbled me and grown me in maturity and independence. Although it has been a great experience for me to grow and learn to work diligently, I recognized that this was not my long-term goal. On top of that, I knew financially I was/am unstable due to the extremely low-paying job I was in. Some long-term goals and passions of mine: because I cannot drive right now, I hope to save enough money to buy a car and get my license in the near future, get involved in real estate once I am able to drive, and it would be an honor and privilege to compete in the kayak/canoe Olympics in the near future! Most importantly, I have always had the desire to travel and be an advocate/inspirational speaker for amputees! Something fun that I’d love to do would be to become an influencer on social media and model someday, as well! In the end, my main mission is that I may be an encouragement, spread love and kindness to others, and that I may lead by example to those around me! I wanted to start taking steps towards my long-term goals and thought becoming involved in the Paralympics would be a great option! I’ve grown up, loving sports, and thought it would be a great challenge for me! So not long ago, I reached out and applied for the Paralympics! I was contacted by a Paralympic coach who is a part of the canoe/kayaking team! We had an amazing conversation and we were just discussing what steps I would need to take in order to make it to the nationals and 2028 Olympics! Here’s where you come in! My coach and I both believe that the best thing for me would be to move to Oklahoma City where I can get the full training I need as an athlete. Due to the job I had with the low income, it would be very difficult to financially make the move, pay for cost of living expenses, and training/competitions etc. And now that I’m back at home, I do not have any income coming in at the moment, which is where you come in! I don’t ever want you to feel obligated and am not asking for much, but I know anything will help me accomplish my missions and goals in life! Even words of encouragements really means a lot <3 from you and I would love if you’d even follow me on Instagram and or Facebook as I am thinking about jogging down my journey to becoming a Paralympic athlete! If you have any questions and even ideas of how I can spread encouragement and answer any questions that you may have, you are more than welcome to DM me on any of those social media platforms! Everything is still uncertain right now, but I do know that the funds I am raising up will go towards my move to Oklahoma City in the next few months, competition and training fees, and future flight tickets/hotels, and necessary sports equipments! I want to thank you for those of you who have read my story. It means a lot, and I hope that you may feel encouraged by it! Blessings!