Battle of Atlanta

The big competition was today, and to coin a phrase, "it was the best of times, the worst of times."  But through all the times, it was a Romans 8:28 sort of day, where we know that "all things work out for the benefit of those who love the Lord."  I suppose the best time to start is the beginning, and that's typically where things begin.  We got up early, and happily we slept a good bit last night, not waking up too frequently.  But it's a hotel, and there's that.  Maddie slept soundly and that was good, still the alarm was early.  We went down and had breakfast at the hotel, and then got in our cars to go over to another hotel and convention center where the competition was.  The students immediately got to practicing in an atrium area, working on their routine and hopefully getting the rust out.

They looked good!  The other teams looked good too.  There were seven demo teams competing, and after practice, we all went into the compressed area where the teams would perform.  The demo team area was squeezed in to a smaller area at the side, and compressed further by other teams waiting at the sides.  It was less than ideal, but Team Edge went out there to perform, ready after so many months of training.

And things went really well.  They were doing fantastic, and no one dropped anything.  But halfway through the performance, it was noticed that Maddie was bleeding.

She was bleeding quite a bit from her forehead.  And yet she still did her portion of the routine with perfection.  She had no idea how much she was bleeding, but the looks on everyone's faces around her were concerning her.  The entire routine was wrapped up, and Maddie was taken to the back wall quickly where a medic was waiting.  The security guard wasn't going to let me back there to go to her, but fortunately someone else of authority stepped in to correct his ignorance.  We raced back to her, and she was understandably upset.  A sword from another teammate has gashed a slice in her forehead.  We had to bind the wound quickly to help with the bleeding.  Maddie was kept separate from the group, who were all very much worried about her.  We were initially too, of course.  

But the medic there was good, and although it was super difficult to hear her because the medic station was right at the stage for some odd reason, we still managed to get the gist of things, and get out of there to the hospital.  Master Edge was with us for a bit, and Maddie was doing fine, except for all the emotional trauma.  We were on I-285 when she got the text though, and it was a message that filled us with a very unusual joy:  we won.  That's right, we won against the other teams.  The team had dedicated their performance to Maddie, and went out there with a routine more perfect than anything they had ever done.

Meanwhile at the hospital, we waited.  And waited.  At least there wasn't any pain.  Maddie had some regular pain killers and the bandage atop her head.  Eventually, it was time to go in to a room to get on a bed.  Only one person in there at a time.  She was with Mom when she got her first stitches, and what a story that will be.

I got my first stitches when I tried to hurdle a bass drum on a football field.  Maddie?  She got her first stitches from a blow from a sword to the head.  And she kept going after that, doing her routine flawlessly.  What?!?  

She is a superhero!  This picture was taken after the stitches.  Maddie was so hungry at this point, and was raving some French fries.  The Williams family had brought her (and us too!) some Steak and Shake, which arrived just in time!  We got in the car, and headed back to the hotel, and there in the lobby, her teammates were there to greet her!  That was really nice.  Everyone went back to their rooms for a bit, and rested somewhat.  Mom and I were watching "Wonka" again for a future KidPak movie message, and Maddie was talking with everyone on the phone, coordinating things, keeping busy.

The rest of the day was quite a bit of chilling.  The team was down at the pool for a good bit, which was fun of course, although Maddie couldn't get her head submerged in the water.

After that we all agreed to meet over at Dave and Busters, a local place for food and video games.  Pretty much the whole team was there, so Maddie got to spend a lot of time hanging out with everyone as they talked about the day's events, and then off to play some video games.

We left there pretty late, and got back to our hotel just as the Braves game was ending.  Our hotel is right there at the stadium, meaning you can see the hotel from our stadium.  And when the game ended, there was this tremendous fireworks show afterwards, which we got to sit in the parking lot and enjoy.  

Maddie was up late with her friends roaming the hotel and the various rooms.  Our room is right there at the pool, so you can walk right out the sliding glass window and go there to the pool, instead of going back to the hotel.  Pretty nifty room after all.  Anyway, Maddie got back, and we were all pretty zonked.  The room is nice and quiet now and it's time for bed.  Time for some rest.  The day was pretty traumatic, but within all of it was an unforgettable victory and amazing memories.  We said our prayers, and we even read a little from our book.  And then we were all fast asleep!