Moving on up

Before he got his belt

So tonight at karate we let Ethan wear his uniform. We were having a hard time with his attitude and told him that he would not get his uniform unless he tightened up. This past week has been wonderful .. not perfect, but such an improvement! He has been respectful, a good listener, well behaved, pretty much all we have asked of him. So off he went, proud to wear his uniform! He looked so cute, but did not yet have his belt ... and did not complain one time about it either! Instructor Benji wanted to give him a little ceremony in class and make a big deal about him getting to put on his white belt, the first in a sequence of course. In front of the class, he had him bow, kneel down, bless his belt and then accept it. I was pretty much in tears because I was so proud of him and just pray that this is his "thing". We all hope to find our "thing" and get fully involved and I remember vividly how much karate meant to me, and more importantly how much it meant to achieve black belt and that is what I hope for for Ethan. I pray that he gets so involved and loves it and can go on to become a great leader in this sport, become an instructor himself, even if it is just helping the junior kids like he is now. I cannot wait to see what becomes of it, if anything because he is very passionate about it and he just beams when he is in class. Instructor Benji even talks about how impressed he is that Ethan holds a strong stance, and pays attention better than most of the 6 year olds!

Enjoy the photos, and if we can upload some video off our camera, I will .. it was a real nice "ceremony".

Kneeling and listening to how important the white belt is

Blessing his belt

Accepting his belt from Instructor Benji

Bowing