Meet Jordan!

This is Jordan! Jordan is our first born child, our only son. My dreams came true when my first born baby was a boy. Jordan is everything "warrior like" and then some. He is intense and competitive, determined and courageous, relentless, fierce and bold. Jordan is inspirational. His mettle, grit and guts never seem to end and we have come to love his never say die attitude.
Remember when the toy stores sold the bow and arrow sets where the arrows had rubber suction cups on the end. By the time Jordan was 4 he could hit squirrels with those things. He would thunder into the house with victory whoops that raised the roof! Dan tried to reassure me that boys just do these things. Jordan loved sports as far back as I can remember. At two, his love was baseball and he would swing his little plastic bat at those baseball sized Nerf balls with fierce determination. I don't remember outlasting him, he would hit as long as we would pitch. I don't recall what sport came next. Once introduced to the world of sports he's liked them all. He likes playing sports, watching sports and even announcing for sports activities. In high school Jordan was doing lots of announcing of the games for 4 different sports. Jordan is in college now and his love for sports continues. He works in the athletic department, plays intermurals and he is announcing the basketball games for both the men's and women's teams at Bryan College in Dayton, Tenn. Oh ya, I can't leave out fantasy sports. Jordan has participated in fantasy baseball and football for several years now and he is getting better all of the time. I don't know where to begin explaining fantasy sports. In a nutshell, it is done on the computer. He is in leagues with several of his friends. They draft their teams and play against one another. They have to manage their teams on a daily basis and it is very involved. I stay out of it.
Jordan has lots of other interests as well. He loves people and ministry and spends lots of time with people doing various ministries. Some of the ministries he has been involved with include street evangelism, serving breakfast to the homeless in our city, and praying regularly in front of our city's Adult Shop. He has become a friend to the manager through this, as they go to pray for and love the people there, rather then to slander and condemn the people who run this shop. He continues to do these ministries whenever he is home on breaks from college which really shows his love and commitment for what he does. He brought the manager Christmas dinner this year because he knew he was working the night shift. Yes the Adult Shop in our city is open 24/7 every day of the year. Jordan is also in the midst of getting some evangelism ministries started at Bryan. When he is home on breaks the phone never stops ringing with young men and women wanting to get together with Jordan to catch up and share what's going on in their lives with God and others.
Jordan is an amazing young man and a fascinating person. His strong character traits of competitiveness and his never back down attitude have often sent me into a tizzy and yet I wouldn't want it any other way. When I started "Meet Jordan" I thought I already knew the one word that would describe him. Competitive. But as I have been writing a different word comes to mind. Jordan is an overcommer. Competitive is probably a tie with that so lets say that the two must go together. God has given Jordan the competitive spirit that has helped him to overcome countless obstacles in his life. Not even we as parents fully understand. Jordan has had juvenile rheumatoid arthritis(JRA) since he was one year old. Doctor's, medications, therapy and surgeries have stolen away many hours of time he would rather have spent chasing squirrels and playing football. But praise God, Jordan is strong in character and has wisdom like Joseph, whose brothers sold him into slavery. Joseph was able to able to say that what his brothers meant for evil against him, God meant for good.(Genesis 50:20). Jordan too, can see that God desires and is able to bring good out of every situation and he chooses to live just that way. Jordan would rather me not mention that he has arthritis because he isn't into dwelling on that so that is all about that for now. But to know Jordan is to know a little about all he has faced and all he has overcome.
Jordan, you are an amazing person and I am more grateful today then I was nineteen and a half years ago, when you were born, my first born child and son. I love you and may your passion never die.
Heavenly Father! Only You understand and remember how overcome with gratitude that I was when Jordan was born. To be given the gift of a child, a son, and to have him on his dad's birthday was unfathomable to me. I remember wishing, but I don't remember daring to ask. It was way too much goodness. I was so scared that I would wake up and realize that it was just a cruel dream. But it wasn't. It was true. Once again you were telling me, "Robin, I do love you and want to give you only good things."
God, I love our son and I have so much more then I deserve. How can I say thanks for all you've done for me. As one song says, "the voices of a million angels can not express my gratitude....all that I am or ever hope to be, I owe it all to thee...To God Be The Glory." May the life of Jordan bring you glory and honor forever. Amen