Champions Ceremony

Friday was the Champions ceremony. All the champion families gathered in a room where they had a live feed on a huge screen of the events going on in the main hall next door. Olympic gold medalist Mary Lou Retton was the keynote speaker. She has been involved with the CMN for 20 years. She still has that killer smile and enthusiastic personality and she gave a great and inspiring speech.

After Mary Lou's speech, the parents left the children sitting in their seats and went next door to assigned places. I had prepared the girls for this, but Kayla wasn't feeling 100% and we weren't sure how they would do. Kayla said "Momma, I don't feel that bad", as if to shoo me on my way!! So off we went.

When we got settled in the main hall next door the awards ceremony began. As each champion was announced by name and state he/she came out on stage to receive his/her champions medal. There was not a dry eye in the house. These kids were delighted and it showed on their faces. Even the youngest child (Orna from Ireland) showed utter delight as she responded to the applause and cheers from the audience. One child (Brandon from Minnesota) stood up from his wheelchair to proudly display his medal. This meant so much to these children and they deserved every ounce of recognition and more.

As we've gotten to know these children and families just a tiny little bit, we've been struck by their spirits. These children do not feel sorry for themselves, they feel compassion towards others. They deal with their challenges, and then they get on with being children. They are full of fun (and some mischief, too). We have loved being with them. And they will be our inspirations for many years to come.

Anyway - back to the medal ceremony - Kayla and Keira marched out on stage as comfortably as they had danced on stage the night before, giving Miss America a big hug first, then moving on to receive their medals...big smiles, waves to the audience and biggest smiles/waves for Mommy, Daddy and Susan who were all crying and waving proudly from front and center aisle, and trying to snap and record as much of the moment as possible.

After the medal ceremony, the girls got their hair "touched up" by the professional stylists who were here for the events (BIG thrill!) and went on camera with Hall of Fame Quarterback Steve Young and Mary Lou Retton for promotional TV feeds back to WENY, our local TV station. There was quite a bit of waiting around as things got a little out of order, and we ended up being last. But the girls as always were troopers, though their weariness did reflect itself in yawns and bleary eyes during taping so it took several cuts and redos to get a version everyone thought would do.

All this before lunch even!! Poor babies.

After lunch they chose once again to "Go to Digs" (the big pool on this property)over Disney Parks or other things . On the way over, we saw several lizards and a black snake out sunning themselves, so even though we'd left the room before Daddy, and he also stopped to get soda refills, we all arrived at the Digs at the same time!

Miss Susan was already there. The girls, emboldened from their swim the day before actually talked a lot about going down the waterslide. When I told them they had to be OK with going "face in" Keira dropped it immediately, but not our determined Kayla. She set out to jump off the side "face in" to prove she could do it. She did accomplish her goal - twice off the side "face in", but in the end she did decide she wasn't quite ready for the waterslide (phew from mommy who really didn't feel her unsculpted body belonged on the waterslide anyway!!)

After our swim we threw on dry clothes, grabbed Susan and went into Downtown Disney for some browsing and dinner at T-Rex (similar to RainForest Cafe but with dinosaurs and meteor showers) followed by hot chocolate from Ghirardellis. Meanwhile, Victor from CMN at AOMC did the official evening duties with CMN leadership. Susan is newly retired and so she is here "unofficially" whereas Victor is AOMC's official representative. Then we went back to our hotel to drop our tired little ones into bed with the promise they can sleep as long as they like.

As my dear husband says...doesn't get much better than this!