Seventh Grade - Blue Belt

So here we are, without too much fanfare.  At least Daddy was able to make a fancy looking "7" for the first day of school picture here.  We shared it on social media, to the collective disbelief of many of our friends elsewhere in the country who have a firm understanding that the school year should start somewhere closer to September than July.  In this case, we missed July by just one day.  I think the school system was taunting us, knowing full well school can start any day in August, so why not just go ahead and make it August 1st?  Sick people!  Sick!

Regardless of any of our opinions, Madison enjoyed her first day of school, a little nervous at the beginning, but when Daddy picked her up after school, she was quite happy with how things worked out.  She has a lot of friends in various classes, and the teachers seem warm and friendly.  She has a journalism class to begin with, followed by math and social studies - I think they'll be talking about Africa soon, continuing the world tour begun a year ago.  There's also science and PE, which she was less than thrilled to have again.  One of the more controversial decisions with students this year is the reduction of time between class periods.  They have only three minutes to get to their next class.  This can be quite a sprint to PE, which for all intents and purposes, might have been planned out.  She's super far between classes, and three minutes is a bit of a rush.

The school year is going well!  Okay, so it was just one day.  But she enjoyed it, and we can all breath a sigh of relief.  We parents all pray for our kids throughout the day, envisioning each class as we look at the clock ourselves, picturing our student wherever he or she might be.  And after that, a short prayer, one of many throughout the course of the day.  In the end, all prayers were answered:  she had a great day.  In her journalism class she was already interviewing someone else, a friend from last year named Jonah.  The journalism class is tied to the yearbook staff, a class she's happy to have been accepted to.

We got home from school, and didn't have much time there, because tonight was a big night at the martial arts studio.  Tonight was rank night!

These were the kids that worked through the summer, so it wasn't the huge crowd that we see during the school year.  But it was still a decent amount of kids, and they all did so well.  The usual process of testing night begins with the kids doing exercises and stretches, and after that, there was some sparring.

Because there were fewer numbers of students, there was more time for sparring.  Each student faced three different opponents, and as you can see here, Madison was aggressive and pretty good with her technique.

One of my favorite moments was the sudden shift in styles, where she surprised her opponent with a double kick and a combo of punches immediately afterwards.  She did well with her sparring, and after that, it was time to show off her form.

This was a wonderful moment.  Last week on Monday, she was struggling so much with this, and quite emotional about it.  Tonight, she was full of poise and confidence, not even a moment's hesitation between maneuvers.

She got into position, and without any slowdown or thought, she executed each move perfectly, her face full of concentration and determination.  She completely owned the moment, and we were so excited to have front row seats to this.  Mommy and Daddy were seated in front, enjoying the whole moment.

And with that final posture, Madison earned her blue belt.  It was a summer of sacrifice, because she could have been doing quite a few other things each night - or day.  We didn't go to as many places as we could have, because there was always that time at Edge ATA that we had to make two nights a week or so.  She was very committed to this, and even practiced during the daytime, running through things in the great room, sort of mentally running through her form.

Here she is with Mr. Edge, who has been such a great instructor.  He and his wife are wonderful people, such a blessing to Madison.  They did the traditional post-belt pose here, although Mrs. Edge was busy at the front with some other students.  We'll try again for that official blue belt pose in October, when Madison achieves the rank of "blue belt decided."  From this point on, each belt takes twice as long - so that being said, the next official belt change will probably be in December.  And after that, the next is in May, if all goes well.  Finally, sometime during eighth grade, Madison will actually be a black belt.  Wow.  But that's a ways from now, so tonight it's time to let that go and celebrate, and maybe do a little dance.

Or something like that.  I'm not entirely sure what "form" this is, but it was fun to watch.  You can see Madison with her new blue belt there, and just as always, the ceremony of the blue belt involves Mommy and Daddy going over to her and grabbing one end of the belt as Madison grabs the other.  Together, we pull at the same time, closing the knot together at the same time.  It's symbolic of the teamwork that it takes to achieve this belt.  Madison was super happy to earn this one tonight, and all the kids were great.  Here's the group picture we took immediately afterwards.

We got home after this, and the rainstorms are just pounding us all the way home and through the night here.  We have to get to bed early now, because we're getting up earlier for school.  We read from our Star Wars book, and looked at these pictures we took from tonight.  We said our prayers, and even now the rain is pouring down as I type this.  It's time to do some proofing of the "Toy Box" booklets for KidPak.  Daddy will be doing that tonight, at least as much as he can before he gets tired... it's been a busy day!