JFIFC    $ &%# #"(-90(*6+"#2D26;=@@@&0FKE>J9?@=C  =)#)==================================================o" }!1AQa"q2#BR$3br %&'()*456789:CDEFGHIJSTUVWXYZcdefghijstuvwxyz w!1AQaq"2B #3Rbr $4%&'()*56789:CDEFGHIJSTUVWXYZcdefghijstuvwxyz ?\c 9ք.d>S`ZT!nع `=jHpkâY.NŽvGD,T gn4ZbqctdV_I{,ztldn۶&sٮ"jLLcVq1Z AߑujHi=ꥌ ;X0v1dW5LBEOhQs5ǯU'q?J{,_ʺQDfaݐ3\=ĖLeE%[]B_ =sb6EsX7 sP}[eFd݈ 9$ՙ.T$(vkwݝ0B,[F) ju ֩&g8 qcދ&" 3 +aY!Q1~sXGjmleg{ELT^TF~iʰJ|_P*?0ݴ$08`߇Rx,?zbҚ([9^k[;cuhgOnH,UnVHıMJ-WY̓B0,z4q1~잧 =0Bhn O-]յ䶈[m9#Ѝk!0sb%hdxfk#YE1sQ5y61 A7$&e%WK3i 2:Z3TUhAu?MrmltЄ%~cv3FJ7:-J԰לK-ܗ423mֽsurlei ɻuka%g!8Tg\nR?p=q=۸;tksRڣi,<90˴I$Ñ1֜wҪu[bUύن$z5Q<63[jz*;Ŧ!Jr~Os1{tJ touF#w'VN:&qZ- ݛft\65 -k9Ŗ@+e>bۯ\ %e"A޹(2c%:gT$+nt[ @hΠr4o$A Î54gQ{;Zi.?}+lNT""L+k{P[D^l$YXc#ݬs-bC][˃[x0ZGq*}k/XEH$*?TTAao<s'c͵?jE6ܜc>b>%VB̨ $uG#޴‡)hqMPXQHuwY(1Q{݅K荀UGrOp-7_.Y0]kj!Alo`!kdpB'毴/ɱ%eS4(?OZՋXI/fawgMIrW#S~] $Lg(J?ηMUItr?o.[RYd H)е[K 2 F{z+1?g@uR#6bFr/ӊacvX@$dQX 0 ℍI?Zh_֞3ڢC$:mY c&4nZwQ/-h~Hlnzv>Jrքj|6݁T<3' J^@D}1w AϽHO=NOψ Bj(,((cȥ]C،fҬ_PU(4SE;2φO)3uӭ֢f1L>r9'z O#.*>p<Ir9\>0#):~uJG9G3b9xYJdeCDVHQº(i7'vj(EPEPEPEPEPEPEPIE袀(((k again. A week after doctors affixed a temporary rod-and-screw assembly to Christi s spine, she was moved to Our Lady of Lourdes Rehabilitation Hospital. Her gymnastics coach Joanne Thaw was at her bedside.<br> I knew if anyone was going to make it back from this, it would be Christi, says Joanne.  I don t train kids for the Olympics here. I train them for strength, for conditioning, for flexibility to compete. For Christi, I think some of those benefits she got here--the upper body strength, her competitiveness and her ability to focus--helped her to recover. <br>Her early rehab was stoked with an athlete s desire to push herself and was aided by her excellent physical conditioning and strength.<br> The rehab wasn t that much different from gymnastics, says Christi.  It s a win-or-lose situation. If you don t get first place in a gymnastics meet, you come back and you work harder. Every day in rehab, when I couldn t walk and then when I barely could, I reminded myself that I had to work a little harder. If I hadn t had that attitude, things might have turned out differently. <br>Christi broke her back in June, losing all feeling and function from the waist down. By July she was walking with braces and a walker.  I d regained some feeling, she says.  But I couldn t feel the difference between sharp and dull. My legs tingled and sometimes it felt like they d fallen asleep. It was strange to look at your legs and not feel them. <br>Progress was quick. In August she went back to school and reduced her rehab to only three times a week. In November she switched to a sports rehab center in Wichita, about 30 minutes from Hesston. There she began using more weights and was soon able to walk on her own.<br>She returned to school in September for seventh grade, but at first Christi couldn t do any sports. During the spring she went out for track and shot put, and ran the 100-meter for her last meet. She was slow, it was awkward, but she did it.<br>That was the picture when BFS first caught up with Christi five years ago. She was a determined girl fig