{"id":37740,"date":"2018-01-07T19:00:41","date_gmt":"2018-01-08T00:00:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/the2seasons.com\/?p=37740"},"modified":"2018-01-05T11:50:23","modified_gmt":"2018-01-05T16:50:23","slug":"happy-birthday-jordan-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/the2seasons.com\/?p=37740","title":{"rendered":"Happy Birthday, Jordan!"},"content":{"rendered":"

Today I want to devote the entire blog post to my partner and daughter, Jordan.\u00a0 She had a birthday yesterday, and I just would like to shout from the roof tops how special she is to me and others.\u00a0 Each year we acknowledge each other’s birthday here on the blog, but this year I want to give her the entire post.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"Jordan\"<\/p>\n

Jordan and I have always had a very calm and easy relationship.\u00a0 We never really had that awkward period where we struggled to maintain peace and sanity with each other.\u00a0 It has just always been easy.\u00a0 Sure, when she was in high school, we might have had a tug once or twice, but nothing really major.<\/p>\n

\"Jordan\"<\/p>\n

The only time that I can think of that she defied me is now a remembrance that brings smiles to our family’s faces because it was so “not Jordan.”\u00a0 When she was three or four, I took Jordan and her brother Cory to see “Goonies.”\u00a0 For some reason, she just wouldn’t behave in the movie theater, and I had to take her out and have a good talk with her.\u00a0 That is the only time that I can remember her to not obey her dad or me outwardly.\u00a0 I know she quietly agitated her brother when we weren’t looking, but I think that’s normal.\u00a0 Whenever it was necessary to punish her, we withheld dessert.\u00a0 That was true punishment to her.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Most of you don’t know this, but when Jordan was 17 and in the 11th grade, she was diagnosed with Crohn’s disease.\u00a0 She had surgery and had part of her colon removed, and she has a big old scar on her abdomen to prove it.\u00a0 So, for more than half of her life, she has been dealing with that disease.\u00a0 She made a conscious effort to remain stress-free, because stress is one of the things that can cause a flare-up.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

She also made up her mind back then that she would not let this disease control her life, and it hasn’t.\u00a0 She continued to play volleyball in high school and went on to have a wonderful experience as a sorority girl at the University of Georgia. During college and post-grad, she rode her bicycle across the country three different times to help raise money for Habitat for Humanity in New Haven, CT.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

This fundraiser was put on by students at Yale University, and she helped raise over $600,000 and is the only participant to ever ride all three routes.\u00a0 (Since then, the fundraiser has been discontinued.)\u00a0 She was also one of four riders featured in a documentary about the ride, and if you’re curious, it’s available here<\/a>.\u00a0 Yale funded this video which was made by a student film crew back in 2006.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Later on the two of us had the chance to ride our bicycles together in Africa.\u00a0 She and her dad started from the foot of the Eiffel Tower in Paris enroute to Dakar, Senegal with a company out of Holland.\u00a0 Just a few days into the trip, he became ill and had to have surgery in a French hospital.\u00a0 When he could travel, he flew home, and I then loaded up my bicycle and met up with Jordan and the group (mostly Europeans) in southern Spain.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

We rode through the Sahara desert, camped in tents, and made it to Dakar.\u00a0 I was definitely the weak link in our duo, and she encouraged me, took care of me, and helped me make it through that grueling experience.\u00a0 She thinks back about it and says our ideas of the trip are totally different.\u00a0 To me it was grueling challenge and the hardest thing I have ever done, but to her, it was a wonderful fun-filled adventure.<\/p>\n

\"Jordan\"<\/p>\n

She has run a half and a full marathon.\u00a0 Here she is running a marathon in Washington, DC.<\/p>\n

\"Jordan<\/p>\n

Her bike rides across the country\u00a0 were instrumental in her meeting the love of her life.\u00a0 She was in Hawaii visiting a friend she had made on one of the rides, and she met the man who became her husband. This is their engagement photo that appeared in the New York Times when their marriage was announced.\u00a0 You can read it here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

(photo by Eric Graf)<\/p>\n

Together, they have built a beautiful relationship, and now together are raising the most adorable little girl.<\/p>\n

\"Caribbean<\/p>\n

Jordan is a natural mommy, and she loves every minute of it.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

She has traveled the world and has improved the lives of people around the world through her volunteer efforts.\u00a0 And when she travels, children just are drawn to her.\u00a0 In between building, digging, painting, she will be carrying a child while a few are following her.<\/p>\n

\"Jordan\"<\/p>\n

Here on the blog, she is the strong one behind the scenes.\u00a0 While I might be writing the majority of the posts, she works on the tech end of it as well as deals with correspondence, advertisers, contracts, and payments on a daily basis.\u00a0 This is definitely an equal partnership.<\/p>\n

\"Jordan<\/p>\n

So, friends, please join me in wishing Jordan and very Happy Birthday!\u00a0 I can’t imagine my life without her.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Take care.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today I want to devote the entire blog post to my partner and daughter, Jordan.\u00a0 She had a birthday yesterday, and I just would like to shout from the roof tops how special she is to me and others.\u00a0 Each year we acknowledge each other’s birthday here on the blog, but this year I want […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":37752,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/the2seasons.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37740"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/the2seasons.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/the2seasons.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/the2seasons.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/the2seasons.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=37740"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"http:\/\/the2seasons.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37740\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37766,"href":"http:\/\/the2seasons.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37740\/revisions\/37766"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/the2seasons.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/37752"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/the2seasons.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=37740"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/the2seasons.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=37740"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/the2seasons.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=37740"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}