This evening Leanne and I attended the awards banquet for the cheer season. They hold the event at the beautiful Pinnacle Country Club just down the road from our house. The evening is filled with good food, good friends, laughs and tears. It is so nice for the coaches and the gym owner to get up and recognize all of the hard work and dedication the girls give to the team or teams they are on. There were over 250 people there today representing all of our teams from the special needs Shining Stars all the way to the senior level 5. Each girl goes in front of the crowd and the coaches say something special about them and give them a trophy. They also award scholarships to all of the graduation seniors. As you can imagine it is a long evening, so Chad opted to stay home with the other kids. Actually, he said "please do not make me go!". It did last just about 4 hours, but it was worth it.
Some of the nice things they said about Leanne where...
"She is a an amazing flier, amazing tumbler, has a great attitude and a hard worker."
At the end of the night they give two girls from each team a special award. This award is usually funny, but goes to a few special girls who work hard and always give 100%. When they started to announce the awards Leanne leaned over and said "I hope I get one this year" (since she has not in the past). When they started to announce the awards for her senior team the coach said "This award goes to a girl who is an amazing flier and tumbler. She is the best flier on our team. This girls in not only an amazing flier, but was a great base on a younger team as well." By this time Leanne is thinking it could be her or one other little girl from her team. Then her coach says "We are calling this award the Head in the Clouds Award. Because this girl not only flies so high, she is a little ditsy sometimes and keeps us all laughing." Leanne leans over to me with the biggest smile on her face and said "that's me!" It was so funny! She was right. She was awarded the Head in the Clouds award for her hard work, dedication and her innocence. She could not have been happier. And I could not have been more proud.
Here is a picture of Leanne with her favorite coach Justin. Justin will sadly be leaving us this year. He will be greatly missed by both of us. He has taught Leanne all of the skill she knows and many life lessons as well.
Congratulations Leanne!! Wow, super talented!!
ReplyDeleteLacy, every time I read about your kiddos I can't help but think about their story and how they came to you. It just almost brings me to tears every time because you could have so easily decided that taking them on would be too much for such a young couple. But GOD!! You were obedient to Him and look what WONDERFUL children they are!
What a HUGE blessing!!