When Veiko Kreis speaks of his son through his thick Estonian accent, a frequent glimmer of pride flashes in his pale blue eyes.
"His life is harder than the others," Veiko said. "He must keep me happy, and he can't lose, because he's the master's son."
The big, burly Kreis, a fourth-degree black belt, is master of the USA Taekwondo Center in Fort Myers and the head of one of Southwest Florida's first families of tae kwon do.
His wife, Inga, who runs the front desk, is a second-degree black belt. His daughter, Krislin, who is off at college studying to be a photographer, is a fourth-degree black belt.
And his son, Chris, is a third-degree black belt who recently won the Florida State Championship in the 14- to 17-year-old division for forms in Tampa. The win qualified him for this summer's Junior Olympic Taekwondo Championships in Austin, Texas.
"You just become accustomed to it, when you do it over and over again," Chris said. "It becomes your life."
Chris' success is just the latest example validating two key choices that his family made 16 years ago.
The first was to leave their native Estonia behind for America. The Cold War that had pressed Veiko into service with the Soviet Union Army for two of the longest years of his life was over. So was the Soviet Union itself, freeing Estonia from its position as a satellite country in the then-USSR.
The decision to emigrate was easy for the young couple, who had at least a few well thought-out reasons for heading west.
"To live the American dream," Inga said with a warm smile.
"Nice warm weather," Veiko added.
The second decision was Veiko's. He had no doubt he wanted to transform the childhood joy he had experienced learning karate into his new trade in his new country. But he also wanted to teach his young daughter self-defense, and karate seemed a shade rough.
And so his attention fell on tae kwon do, South Korea's meditative equivalent of Japan's more aggressive karate.
He was a quick study.
"Since I had the basics, the kicking and punching came easy, though the styles and forms are different," Veiko said.
The USA Taekwondo Center was up in no time, and Krislin was its star pupil. Just a few years later, Chris, the new addition to the brood, was quickly carving out his own niche.
"Chris was like 3 years old. He was too young, so I trained him at home," Inga said. "He would practice with broomsticks, and then he was a yellow belt, orange belt, he was making videos of himself - it was incredible."
Meanwhile, business was taking off, with the Kreis family taking its show on the road, breaking boards and bricks with heads and hands at local events and winning over new converts with its sales pitch.
"It's a sport parents can do," Inga said, before Veiko quickly cut in.
"In other sports, you have to sit on the sideline," he said, glowing with excitement. "Here you can do it with your kids.
"... And the parents, they say, 'Thank you so much. I've seen a big change in his attitude and his grades.' They say, 'If you don't get good grades, we'll tell master Veiko.'"
More than a decade after the Kreises' leap into tae kwon do, Chris, a 15-year-old freshman at South Fort Myers High, has become the family's brightest star. He's got his spot in the Junior Olympics for forms, the art's more graceful side, and wants to add a berth in the combative sparring side by qualifying next month in the National Qualifier in Orlando.
"Sparring interests me more," Chris said, "because that's the Olympic style. One of my biggest goals is to go to the Olympics."
Chris is excelling in competition, but he's no longer the primary focus of Veiko and Inga.
For more than an hour as they sit in the front lobby of USA Taekwondo and discuss their wonderful American adventures, parents and children form a steady stream in and out of the center, all devoted to the Kreis clan and the gift they've shared with Southwest Florida.
They're all part of the Kreis family now, and there are no regrets for the Estonian immigrants as they look back over the new life they chose nearly two decades ago.
"For us, it's about giving back," Inga said. "It's not about us anymore, it's about the children.
"They've all become our family."
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Life alters with Taekwondo
