Cover Gallery > Click here to return to the Cover Gallery main menu

On a July night in Wisconsin in 1998, 3-year-old Ciara Faulkner accepted the glittering crown that marked her the All American USA Toddler Queen. The next morning her mother, Cheryl, began her own three-day stint, complete with the obligatory interviews and evening gown modeling pressures, all while taking care of Ciara and her brother Conner, also 3, along with an older brother. "Looking back, I can't say I'd ever do it again!" she says. "But it was a wonderful weekend."

Faulkner, the oldest woman in the competition at 35, earned the matching Mrs. All American USA crown and sash. "I don't enter pageants to win, but to have fun and make friends, to let the younger women know that it's not the crown that matters but the person underneath," she says.

More importantly, pageants offer a unique way for Faulkner — who readily admits how fortunate she has been in life — to give back to the community and urge others to get involved in social projects. She uses her crown to open doors to speaking engagements. "Without that title, people don't give me a chance.Think about it: 'Hi, I'm Cheryl, can I come encourage your kids?' just doesn't work without the title backing it up."

Faulkner spent her teen-age years soaking up the sun by the ocean in Huntington Beach, Calif., where she moved from St. Louis at the age of 13. Suddenly shy and tongue-tied, Faulkner relied on her parents' advice to cope: "There are no gimmicks. If I wanted to conquer a fear, the best way was to challenge it head on."

Faulkner soon followed in a friend's footsteps by competing in a local beauty pageant. She lost. What she needed was a solid platform, a sincere message to convey. "It's an old saying, but it's so true — treat others how we want to be treated," she explains. Putting her own spin on it, her theme became Character Counts, and it eventually won her the Miss Huntington Beach, Miss Orange County and Junior Miss California titles.

The prizes included scholarship money, which she applied toward an associate arts degree at Golden West College. Her experiences led to a public spotlight as a Los Angeles Rams cheerleader, a platform Faulkner used to spread her message and encourage others. Friends naturally assumed she aspired to the entertainment fame that pervades the Southern California lifestyle, but she insists she was a football fanatic first and a cheerleader second, with no Hollywood aspirations. "I love the game and I understand the game. And I like to go where the action is, so I became a cheerleader."

As a cheerleader with the LA Rams, it was inevitable that she met Chris Faulkner, the Rams' tight end.They got together at a Halloween party in 1984, and married three months later.

Chris was traded to the San Diego Chargers, and eventually played for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, but when his NFL career ended in 1986, the former Hamilton Heights High School star athlete returned to Indiana to join the Faulkner family's historic bookbinding business. The Faulkners had always come back in the off season to work at the family business, but this would be a permanent move.

The Character Building Years

They settled in a Georgian farmhouse just before winter with two toddler sons, Austin and Cody, in tow. Although she cheerfully investigated the library community programs, museums and other local cultural entertainment to help ease the transition, Faulkner admits it took nearly two years for her to adjust fully to the lifestyle change.

By '92, the Faulkners had added sons Christian and Conner to their "team." Cheryl occasionally applied the teaching certificate she picked up at San Diego State University toward substitute teaching opportunities, but for the most part she chose the stay-at-home mom path.

She teaches her own children to adhere to her Character Counts philosophy in practical ways. The five siblings greet guests to Sonblest with a firm handshake while introducing themselves and looking the adult in the eye. (Four-year-old Conner sometimes slips, offering his age rather than his name, which prompts the typical eyeball-rolling criticism from his older brothers.) They ask permission to buy treats at the Little League concession stand, and don't complain if that request isn't granted each time. And there's no such thing as boys' and girl's chores, as everyone learns to sew, launder, iron, clean and cook — following Daddy's example as well as Mommy's. "We need to teach our children the basics. My ultimate goal is to work ourselves out of a job," she adds.

Her children agree that they are held to a high standard, but fully appreciate the lessons learned through the example their parents set. The older children act as role models for their younger siblings as well as their peers. And each one already has set goals for the future. Faulkner believes that they are trying to live up to their parents' expectations, but she says she and Chris only expect what they may be capable of accomplishing. "They're normal kids. They're not perfect. But I want them to know they can do whatever they want to do. And I want them to recognize their good fortune, and share that with others."

Such can-do spirit prompted Austin and Cody to nudge Faulkner toward home schooling four years ago, when they were in the third and first grades respectively. She first heard about this option shortly after becoming a Hoosier. There were numerous benefits of the plan: First, the brothers wouldn't separate during the day, and as above-average students, they could learn at a quicker pace without waiting for the rest of the class to catch up.

Second, the family could travel the state with Chris, learning the bookbinding trade. Faulkner takes advantage of that opportunity to provide a "hands-on history lesson of Indiana." As she and Chris perform the repair work on state books and court reports in the courthouses of towns throughout Indiana and Illinois, the children have the opportunity to learn the local history. When the work is finished, they are able to do a little sight-seeing around the town, enriching their appreciation of the Midwest.

Third, quality time proved the clincher to the decision to home school. Between the country school bus travel routes that forced early hours and late returns, chores, homework and extracurricular activities such as Boy Scouts, karate lessons, church camps, Indianapolis Children's Choir practice, Conner Prairie youth interpreter roles, and sports, Faulkner found only handfuls of scattered minutes to enjoy her sons and impart her values to them.

Mornings are devoted to school lessons. Independent testing reveals the two older boys score at high school and even college levels in various subjects. The afternoons and evenings belong to a balance of the family members' chores, social involvements and community activities. The children often visit foster grandparents in nursing homes, while Cheryl pitches in as everything from Tiger Cub den leader to volunteering at the Tipton County Council's coalition for drugs and alcohol to manning phones at the area teen hotline. While Cheryl is the cheerleading coordinator for the Tipton Youth League, Chris coaches soccer and football, and serves as director of the Cicero Christian Church's Power Team ministry, a group of Christian body builders.

"It's important to give 110 percent in all we do," says Faulkner. "And just as I teach them to brush their teeth, make their bed and pick up their room, I want them to give back to the community in whatever capacity they can. Besides," she adds, "it's amazing what you can get done in a day if you use good time management."

Although the family schedule will change this fall when Austin returns to public school in order to play on the football team, Faulkner is assured that the family values will go with him.

From Russia With Love

Such family bonding eventually sparked a restlessness with the couple's more hands-off financial contributions to children's charities. Shortly after Conner's birth, Faulkner began researching the adoption process to offer an underprivileged child a chance for a good life. The attorneys tactfully but firmly pointed out the glaring fact that they already had four boys — did they really want to take on another child? Of course, this situation ranked them behind childless couples, which translated to as much as a five-year wait. Because she didn't want that large an age gap between her natural children and this chosen one, Faulkner turned to overseas options after a magazine ad for Christian World Adoption organization caught her eye. "There are things in our lives we feel in our gut are right. This was right," she says.

She maintained that same conviction when the agency shipped a videotape of a 15-month girl in Arkangel, Russia. Chris stayed home that day to watch the five-minute tape. To a mother's eyes, the 18-pound mite had glossy eyes, pale skin and a bad cold. Indeed, Russian doctors confessed their intended daughter had a heart murmur, learning disabilities, poor motor skills and rickets. Faulkner says she bawled, her sensitive nature loving this child at first sight. She secretly carried the infant's photo in her purse from that day in October until the couple arrived in Russia in January to claim their new daughter. They found a crib-bound child who existed on diluted tea, non-homogenized milk and potato soup; the size-4 clothes Faulkner packed swam on Ciara's tiny frame.

Yet mother and daughter instantly bonded.While bathing the tiny girl for the first time, Faulkner suddenly screamed for Chris, who rushed in to find her in tears again. "She has my birthmark on the back of her neck, the same one my four boys, my mother and grandmother have," she nearly whispers. "It was awesome.This is where God intended her to be."

Young Ciara was the toast of the return flight as stewardesses and passengers alike showered attention on her. Such outpouring convinced the mother of five to dust off her pageant skills as an outlet to spread the adoption message. Speaking to groups about her experience adopting Ciara has helped get 12 other children adopted.

Since rejoining the circuit, Faulkner is the reigning Ms. United Nations Indiana and Ms. United Nations Kansas. Ciara, now a healthy 40-pound charmer who doctors at Riley Hospital for Children say has conquered her earlier health troubles (some, like the heart mummer, didn't even exist), has put her tiny feet in Mom's footsteps.

"I wanted to give her the chance to feel good about herself and build her self-confidence." Faulkner tries to pass this message to every girl, whether a grade-schooler or one of the high school hopefuls she consults as a 4-H pageant director in her county. She carries the crown and sash in a box on these school visits, declining to wear it unless directly asked to do so. However, she places her sparkling tiara atop the little girls' heads, and often takes their photos to help them remember the smiles. She allows Ciara to keep a few special crowns and trophies from her competitions; they donate the rest to Special Olympics as yet another way to give back a bit of their good life.

Faulkner recognizes the importance of helping her daughter explore her own heritage by learning about her culture, its language and customs. She purchased Russian-language tapes, and when the time is right, the two will learn Ciara's native language together. Faulkner wants her daughter to grow up to be more than just a beauty queen; she wants to instill good, solid values and hand down the message that Character Counts.

"Exterior beauty fades," Faulkner says. "I don't look the same as when I was a teen-ager or in my 20s. And I've known a lot of beautiful women who were empty inside, or just plain mean. For us to be happy with ourselves, it has to come from within. Inner beauty always shines."