Taekwondo Hanmadang

For survivors, life continues.

I wanted it to just stop for a bit, but it didn't.

Life went on.  Without Grams.

I stayed with my Dad until the end of the week, 

but wanted to be home to cheer Avery on at her first Taekwondo competition.

Leaving him was so hard. 

(He promised to come over to our house the following week for his birthday 

which made leaving at least bearable.)

The US Taekwondo Academy where Avery takes classes held a regional competition called Hanmadang (pronounced Hah-Mah-Dong).  What is Hanmadang? 

It is the Korean word meaning "Festival". One time a year they host a Taekwondo Festival for students from all 9 USTA Martial Art Studios.

Since it was Avery's first competition, we had no idea what to expect.  She chose to only compete in performing her poomse (poom-say) and not do the sparring competition. 

The day began in Marysville at 10 a.m.

There was a lot of waiting around.

Uncle Geoff and Auntie Robin met us there....

They did the opening ceremony and got all of the students down on the mats to warm up.

They did the Taekwondo version of "YMCA"....

After waiting for a couple of hours, it was finally Avery's turn.

The staging area....

Then they get called to the ring where they will perform their poomse in front of three judges.

This is when Avery started to get nervous.

She did awesome!!!

The judges let the audience see the scores before they flip their cards around.

Everyone was cheering.....

We had no idea the day would be quite so long (the girls gobbled down all the snacks I brought within an hour of getting there!) and we were all STARVING, so we decided to leave before the closing ceremony and get some lunch.

Avery got her medals and was very proud of her performance!

We're so proud of her too!!!

Such confidence and poise.  Way to go Avery!