Welcome Back To SWKA!

I've said it before, hands down the saddest part of owning a karate school is when students have to move away. The heart wrenching phrase "we don't want to go but we have to," breaks me every time. However this is not a blog about sadness, this is a blog about joy! 

For about 3 years now Gene and I have had the same hair stylist, Ashley. We just love her and her work; over time as we got to know Ashley better we learned about her kiddos and she learned about our karate school. After much prodding on our part we were able to convince Ashley to bring her wee ones to SWKA and they ended up staying with us for right around a year. Last May however career opportunities changed and Ashley, the kids and the rest of their family ended up moving to Omaha. We were of course heartbroken. We kept in touch though, we saw Ashley every few months when she came down to give her regulars a hair cut.

2 weekends ago we had a hair cut, asked about the kids, had a normal chit chat and then went on our way.

Last Saturday I went around the corner after the Adult class and grabbed a coffee, when I came back to the school Ashley was there with her son Draven! I thought they were here to visit because they have family that lives in our area. Then Ashley broke into the biggest smile and said, "Do you know how hard it was to cut your hair and keep it a secret from you guys that we were moving back!!"

My heart exploded! I've felt the heart break several times when a student has to leave us, but this is the first time we have had someone move back. Last night both Draven and his sister Dareyen were back in class! Such a sweet feeling!