More on Birchot Hashachar

To add a bit to Ms. Schapiro's excellent answer, a deaf person would still say the first Bracha (אשר נתן לשכוי בינה...) despite being unable to hear the rooster's call.  There are differences of opinion as to whether a גר should say שלא עשני גוי or not.  The שלחן ערוך says that he shouldn't, presumably because it is inaccurate.  The משנה ברורה explains he can say שעשני גר, because that language (עשה) is used for conversion (הנפש אשר עשו בחרן), though others disagree and maintain that he should skip the ברכה entirely.  I have seen quoted from the מגן אברהם and the שלחן ערוך הרב (I didn't get a chance to look it up) that they say that the Ger should make the bracha like everyone else, on kabbalistic grounds.  Perhaps this opinion is in line with the following argument that I found made by an anonymous convert on an old message board here:  

"[T]he Rambam in his teshuva to Ovadia the convert, which explicitly states (based on the Yerushalmi) that a convert should not change the words of tefilot: "in the same way that every Jew by birth says his blessings and prayers, you too shall bless and pray, whether you are alone or pray in the congregation." The positition of the Rambam is consistent with the psak that I received with regard to "shelo asani goy" and I know other gerim who received a similar psak. What is going on here theologically? It is that the convert, upon his or her acceptance into klal yisrael, is considered as if he or she has been a member of the nation forever. In the words of Rav Aharon Lichtenstein: "in the aftermath of his admission into knesset yisrael, the ger identifies with its past, with its triumphs as well as failures, no less than he does with the present; with eschatological vision as with current vibrant reality. The ger is born both as a servant of G-d and as a citizen of the nation . . . " Moreover, the comment of the gemarra in Yevamot that a ger is like a newborn is not aggada - it is halacha. The convert is newly born into yehadut - and in that sense it is completely appropriate for the ger to recite "shelo asani goy" because, indeed, the ger has been reborn and has been newly created, not as a gentile but as a Jew."