I am beyond blessed. This past weekend’s Mrs. Oklahoma International Pageant was, in a word, AMAZING! But even that great word can’t come close to expressing just what I feel about the experience.

We arrived on Friday and our first mission was to set up the stage at the Stillwater Community Center. Mrs. Oklahoma ’07 and Mrs. Oklahoma ’09 were there to help me. Sometimes a girl’s gotta do what a girl’s gotta do and pretty soon, we were moving these large and heavy platforms onto the stage. I joked around that one of the new requirements for Mrs. Oklahoma is that she should be able to lift 70 pounds like UPS. We are the purple! And we are a platform based pageant after all so we should probably add a platform lifting competition. 😉

Orientation began at 6. This was the first time that all of the ladies had been together in one place. Because of our Go Red for Women affiliation, there are opportunities during the year for us to get together now before the pageant and that has been fun and rewarding.

I am such a sap. To see these beautiful committed women all in one room, knowing their hearts and their passions, well, it choked me up. We truly do have the most amazing women enter our pageant.

Amy Dunn, a survivor of heart disease, was first on the agenda. She is a young mother who has heart disease. I think we were all really impacted by her message given her young age. This could be any of us. I loved her completely Go Red attitude that included her hair and outfit! She told use she had never spoken in public before but you would have never been able to guess that. She had a powerful message for us.

We were then blessed with inspirational and encouraging messages from Mrs. Oklahoma 2000, Sandy Haesloop, Mrs. Oklahoma 2007, Brooke Good, and Mrs. Oklahoma 2009, Rachel Roberts. I sat there in awe, choked up again, at their composure, message and beauty. I have met many of the national Mrs. Internationals and these three women share the same wonderful qualities – approachable, friendly, well spoken, beautiful. Inside and out beautiful, cliche’ though it may be. It’s so very true.

My favorite part of the evening was when I asked each local titleholder to stand up, introduce themselves and tell us the coolest thing they had done with their platform. Wow. I have goosebumps as I type this. Again, I was choked up. Proud, proud, proud of each and every one of them.

I then had to add to the list, the coolest thing that I do with my “platform” which is “Encouraging Titleholders in the Mrs. Oklahoma International Pageant“. Watching them travel the road from when they enter until when they compete is so awesome for me. I love watching their growth, sharing their excitement. This, my friends, is a priceless position that I fill and there really are no words to describe how serving as the director of the Mrs. Oklahoma International pageant completes and fulfills me.

Check back. When I get a second, I’ll tell you about the pageant itself. 🙂

PS – about the crying? You should probably see my previous post “We’ve got to carry each other” for an explanation about that. I cry. A lot. 🙂