HiiiiiiiiiiYA!

Henry tested for his white/yellow belt in Taekwondo yesterday and it was awesome! I had heard that it was a pretty long and involved process so I was dreading it just a little bit, but it was super fun and inspiring. Henry did his forms great, but during one steps he caught sight of a little boy from his class at school, stopped what he was doing and started waving, and never really got it back together. We don't find out if he passed until tomorrow. I know they give the lower ranking kids a lot of wiggle room so I have my fingers crossed! He worked really hard and knew his stuff, but has the focus of... a 6 year old. We'll see. Either way, I am super proud of him and he couldn't possibly have been any cuter.



The other kid in this picture is Ethan Morris, the son of the Master of the school. He is only 12, but he's a 3rd degree black belt. He is an awesome all around kid and Henry is lucky to have him to look up to!


Some of these kids were incredible. You can't really see it in this picture, but way at the bottom of the picture-that thing with the white/yellow stripe around it? That's a little kid. This red belt (who is just a kid himself) did a flying side kick OVER the kid and broke a board. Um... can you say awesome???


This is a red/black belt testing for his recommended black belt. To do it, he has to break a certain number of boards. This was his third or fourth try and I know that foot was hurting. Finally, Master Tony came out from behind the judging table to hold the board for the kid himself. Seeing him back there must have done the trick because he did it! I seriously almost burst into tears I was so happy for him! He threw his hands up and I thought he was going to explode with pride. It was so cool.


All of the people testing for their black belts-running the gamut from this boy to a man in his late 60s- were so inspiring. They each had a story and everyone was so supportive of each other. It was such a great scene and I'm glad that Henry is a part of it.