Gavin's New Adventure

Since the beginning of the school year, we've been trying to find an extracurricular activity for Gavin. He pretty much loves doing whatever his sister is doing, so we felt like it was really important for him to have something that was his own.

The obvious choice in Italy is soccer. We looked into several options, but we never found what we thought was a good fit. As you can imagine, soccer is incredible competitive here. We just wanted a place where Gavin could learn, have fun, and meet some new friends without all the pressure.


Nothing panned out in the Fall, and about a month ago, Cody said, "We should find a place for Gavin to take karate." Wow, why didn't we think about that earlier? So, we scoured the internet and finally found a place really close to our house that offered lessons to kids. And it's technically not karate. . . it's taekwondo.

Looks tough, doesn't he?

Gavin is five, and they like kids to be six before they start. But because he is so tall for his age, they agreed to let him try it out. He LOVES it! After his years of Jedi training, it's really the perfect fit. :) And honestly, with Gavin's personality, an individual sport is probably a much better idea for him to be able to develop confidence.

Got to say, he was pretty excited about his uniform. I know there's an official name for it, but we're not that far in yet!

He goes twice a week, and he's been for two weeks now. Mondays and Wednesdays are highlights for him! He's so proud to show us what he's learned, and we're so proud of him for doing this all on his own. This is actually a really big deal for him, and we feel like it is incredibly significant toward helping him to really thrive here. So we are rejoicing in announcing the new white belt living in our home. The next time you see him, you'll have to ask him to show you his moves!