Back from my mini Sabbatical...

Sooooo... Okay apparently, I haven’t gotten the hang of keeping up a blog as you can see from the lack of recent entries. I could attribute it to the fact that the past couple of months have kept our family extremely busy.  Or, I could just introduce you to who I have spent a litle too much time with - Procrastination...

I have been duly chastised by more professional bloggers, and I am going to make a concerted effort to be more diligent about putting pen to paper - or rather fingers to keyboard :). 

WELL, we last left off with telling you about how exciting we were that Gabrielle had been one of six Sr. Women’s National Team Members selected to represent our country, the great  U S of A, at the 2011 Gymnastic World Championships in Tokyo, Japan.  A decision that did not leave most gymnastic fans with the warm & fuzzies.

Gabrielle didn’t have the best performance at the 2011 Visa Championship (in fact it was a near disaster) - as we have already covered.  So, it was logical that many were baffled by her inclusion on the Team and asking, "Why, Why?"

But see that’s the funny thing about logic - the internal strength of the human spirit is sometimes not taken into consideration.  Now don't get me wrong, I love me some logic - even got an 'A' in my Logic class in college and solved a logical proof that my professor said had never been solved before.  (Insert picture of me patting myself on the back LOL)

However, I see more than ever now that even though something may look very logical, the power of faith and the resiliency of human nature can never be discounted or underestimated.






Now ya’ll know I couldn’t resist throwing a little MJ in there... After all, he was from my hometown - Gary, IN!

Okay, back to World Championships.  Gabrielle was determined to not take her opportunity to compete for her country for granted.  I will admit she was really nervous because she didn’t want to let her teammates or country down.  She also really wanted to make us, her host family and her coaches, Chow & Li, proud.  She said, "Mom, what if I mess up again? I really don't want to disappoint anyone."  I told her to just take it one day at a time and not to focus on negative thoughts. 

A lot of pressure was resting on those tiny shoulders.  I thought the way that she dealt with all of her emotions was really impressive! 

She worked very hard to get back in top shape physically and mentally.  As her body began to heal, her confidence began to return.  Although she was still not at 100% when she performed in Tokyo, she challenged herself to give it all she had. 

Unfortunately, I didn’t get to travel to Tokyo to watch her compete.  Instead, my other children and I nervously crowded around the computer to watch the competition online.  After we saw her complete her routines, we were all jumping up and down, screaming and high five-ing (is that even a word?).  I mean, you would have thought we won the lottery.  We are, of course, much more “reserved” when we actually attend competitions.  But, I’m thinking we might start turning in performances like Danell Leyva’s coach.  We absolutely love watching his reactions at the meet! 

The encouraging words of Chow and nailing her routines at Worlds really helped Gabrielle find a new found confidence that shes never really had.  I have to say that whole experience was definitely a turning point in Gabrielle’s gymnastics career - something our whole family has been waiting on for a while.  As you can imagine, we are so thrilled with all of her progress. 

Now, the goal is just to keep her healthy...  Spirit, soul & body.