First place

I told the the people in my own small world I was going to bed a little while ago, but I have to post about something before I do that. (Not like anyone believes me anyway when I say I'm going to retire for the night before 1 a.m.)

Tonight at church, we had a Youth Family Talent Show/Potluck. Good food (I LOVE POTLUCKS.) and the talent was, shall we say, interesting.

I was so proud when Emilie got up on the stage and did stupid bassoon tricks. She blew up rubber gloves at the beginning and end of her act with the words "Hi" and "Bye" written on them. (Yeah, with her bassoon.) She made sound effects. Bumble bees, Ryan after he's eaten an entire bowl of ice cream, and, um, swan farts.

One lady wiggled her ears. A high school boy did 100 pushups in his wrestling shoes and singlet on a dare. Ewww. A girl picked things up with her toes. Baby Jake sang his ABCs. One kid, in a truly amazing feat, solved a Rubik's cube in 1 minute, 35 seconds.

Then there was Raika. This blog is for her. She is a beautiful young lady with Down Syndrome. I think she's 14. She is the apple of our church's eye. She got up there in a cute outfit and performed a dance routine, complete with sparkly silver pompons, to a hip hoppy song. She was the star of the show. While she was dancing (and she is a better dancer than me by a longshot), everyone was clapping along and cheering, and none of it was humoring her. At the end, she came back to her seat, and whispered to her mom, "How did I do?" and her mom told her she was perfect and they kissed each other on the nose. And she was perfect. She never missed a beat.

Tonight, she was my hero, and so were all her peers in our youth group who encouraged her and made her feel like the Queen of the show. Which she was.