Miss Lake Norman Outstanding Teen Pageant

So Jaeden has been wanting to try a pageant for awhile. A month ago I was flipping through our local paper and saw a pageant she could enter. We thought it was a small, local type pageant so she decided to try it. Come to find out, this pageant takes the winning contestants to Miss NC, and then to Miss America! Having no experience (or clothes, or anything), she decided to try it anyway. Wow, what a ride...we seriously were not prepared!!! We had amazing help from an awesome gal that has lots of pageant experience (really, we couldn't have done it without her...you are the best, Phaedra!), and spent the next few weeks shopping like crazy. We were so fortunate to be able to borrow lots of items (thanks Phaedra and Kannon!), and Jaeden made her pageant debut last Saturday night. She had a great crowd of cheering fans and really did an amazing job! She was the youngest in her age group (7th grade)...the gal that was crowned Miss Lake Norman Outstanding Teen was in 11th grade. All the contestants were amazing and did a great job! What a really sweet group of girls :-)
What I was most impressed with was Jaeden's platform statement: Orphan Awareness
Her cause, what she feels called to do, is to make people aware of all the orphans in the world and ways to help them. She discussed her travels to China and what she remembered from bringing home her baby sister. She talked about her trip to Bolivia, South America, working in the orphanage, and connecting with the boys there. She described how she is currently waiting to hear word about her baby brother and what a beautiful gift it is to build a family through adoption.
This pageant was an amazing experience for her and I am so glad she had the opportunity. I don't think she is quite ready to do another just yet but I think at some point, she'll be putting on an evening gown and 4 inch heels once again... ;-)