JFIFC    $ &%# #"(-90(*6+"#2D26;=@@@&0FKE>J9?@=C  =)#)==================================================_" }!1AQa"q2#BR$3br %&'()*456789:CDEFGHIJSTUVWXYZcdefghijstuvwxyz w!1AQaq"2B #3Rbr $4%&'()*56789:CDEFGHIJSTUVWXYZcdefghijstuvwxyz ?X+&5>lR9_k 5?3};!ڨ-87vFӋQD"L^=lM9OkK3'^!x8ҹk$L$W\[X\:F^92GH1}$P9vWCZlj gbTi5' HY兣9݀!ciZ\V rbB$ws׭Brؖ H1-ukX"gI ֱ fܕI*w@=)ckibnPxl[2QCp$l Jxx Wj*|Ke\%95 G)1@ eC3jwKUU>d}5FIK5ocb4wi=ט+`)ĎNg$5;kyơ[`[ Jjx5s)"L #@]xvB}ZWB-%t"0FP?Z}H+& (sRVJN̥yfDWF;U Ēxγ"@d]F bk{IK,<jΉm})2@9pjI4:4ov%lqUHTxiV hdmx'qPkԵ\.Զ'+6LU:2Z%%@ ~$cZ.F-pp=xCqks Sal<1JVP ~#QtNv9 XXQ$voE¿R #egKD6E3-̟Q\}(dH3\kU%r]46{[v'pXJ!5mKTQZw>TEF}I>%fy\~6ncKpd7k.%B9;minZ HPѥ`5-E873OZHcY|{U-:t\>zeu=j>g yeϾ(KK9wn}TGܗSYv)6< ~ 5~-1c'kF(!FO^j"{wY$amqjdR8EuZkPt2?`_Ih\7FiQG,#Vio"x.e ֺ?XeB'>=FkÞn. 2IzTA8V-N 98*y{vq xҬ DrF pq=D{\w@ՊϦA>st{H0 㞧\iqoJJN{JM \[H&0ɒy6th,n ! uN\{;#6I;L$̤t[Skb=X#.svU UwJΖg9=ǵG4=֋hszV6XXIt۔U8WQ J9u1*ĒF+7V^XI9,HU v zՃir!-:޵;GsyVfq>rIz\)z?kdEO88j6Id~m=:pc2nlGvD C)1megD;Pq֥{,y<2c>{hx9QV$1;cҊhe says with a laugh.<br>Christi had fractured her L2 vertebra and dislocated her L3. Doctors were  cautiously optimistic that she would walk 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 fighting the odds, but no one knew if she wo