JFIFC    $ &%# #"(-90(*6+"#2D26;=@@@&0FKE>J9?@=C  =)#)==================================================" }!1AQa"q2#BR$3br %&'()*456789:CDEFGHIJSTUVWXYZcdefghijstuvwxyz w!1AQaq"2B #3Rbr $4%&'()*56789:CDEFGHIJSTUVWXYZcdefghijstuvwxyz ?nsKIK^*GK U=JZJZ (QGPEQE9 ZJ(Phi -!{QEgR Z&E@ ( (4P`Vet ;W^ ) QMRQIJZwZؠk zֺf(@V4~SȑFvکiQGj*.1)i-Rb (i)xT J}M\7՞dVV!0; ÿ1]YJ7zc+fI(PRZnv~Ԏ[ܹ̅v}GXGrT9gV8kK]W4RR5(Եy|PQ]r0xLrN?ua"3Ђ^K靉"5+gL};Sv0fBէf?zSQ.os?#ZThC*op6woxXCK}"]1 GV>+nZ*1d9MuG&(#h6*|Ɯm*J>ʼ2ӎ+ƌe7zE%%'?y葜2>ӪM%qjW*;% W9J nRC8Ydކ'j4{.fS$Ai2Fz T:IJ2,-q$pJB9Vz`6U 0cT5Hx$rX`dhftRJGkowF;ݲ_\:q,!;PNչ܋{a߂]@R6$i^e7țk[Ym?UPNC{E7 a]A,08甼{g34@qRHB[%Ă(N+jR׮YN.-#pC}+ͬ<976~5&[y.OS^v&BSNQFh()((H_P!$sҸA H{θ뗖f9ZKf!BĞ[Y*3 VV574\~;KXH% uY~T?ljCGJFmhr# -0xd n+2Fx~ՙCU)[ <ԕp ( ( (THsKE 9Ii6+mKq#UψV/]);&\}"6#$'J}m.Yp)F*ʶJSii~i{هvxGy@GvvLڼujOmp[kz*{H۩jYٞiiՉ|v 2dzۮJq33QE!ES;QKE>(HQEjV-AE2Yn k&%ewCT-ں$ ֩5u###rfPq~]!֌sAe~iGl5jX \aA; p8>ÓUu;Y<$ẩ5ӆ"/aڤ0P Vpy,):k#fhީ(͂QEQEs0gmǫ xt}k8xt vh_ #>ۅTm+LeI`fdyqN]n\~i/LrOFsԂp KlVEfUp`Vq:$ڊ*ڢ0Ɗ*rpa[F,QNiIOvJĔ~ONQI8۱hIJEeb)-~xcoϻҬ[Q[RTH[gcGК(J;R#Kq)ays 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 would make