Jordan was born on Friday, June 13, 1986.  Being a signifcant Friday of bad luck would certainly not stop her on her life of struggle and triumph, though it would symbolize her first few years.  Jordan, or as we fondly call her now, Jody, was born with the most severe case of Spina Bifida. 

This defect would leave her paralyzed from the mid waist down, leave her shunted in her brain and give her tremendous learning obstacles among many other physical challenges that she would face.  Her clubbed feet would need repair, her Arnold Khiari, or long brain stem would need decompression and over the first 13 years of her life, she would endure 28 surgeries, the loss of her legs and 10 birthdays in the hospital. 

Through everything, she remained positive and a driving force for her family and friends who saw her struggle to keep up in school and keep up in general.  Thirteen became a significant time in Jordan's life as this was when she lost her legs and quite a bit of herself in the battle.  Missing most of her 8th grade and coming back a totally different and much shorter person, her friends really didn't know how to approach her anymore.

Jody became depressed, lost and very sad.  She had no one in her life, minus one close friend and her family.  It was then that Make A Wish came to her while she was yet again in the hospital having her fifth brain surgery.  They got her application processed and before you know it, Wish Granters were at our house paving the way for her smile to come back.

About a year later, Jordan received her wish.  She met Dale Earnhardt, Jr. and went to her first NASCAR race in Daytona Beach, Florida.  To say this changed her life would be an understatement and very trivial.  Her spark came back and Jordan has become a very vibrant person who faces her new challenges with a brand new vigor.

Eight years have passed since that Wish, and eighteen more surgeries have come and gone and Jordan has grown into a young woman who now gives back and lives to help others like herself.  She works behind the scenes at her local chapter of Make A Wish and recently Co-Chaired their annual Gala.  She is a member of the Alumni group of wish children, who speak to groups and help out with functions and share the power of what wishes do emotionally and physically for them.

She is not unlike many others affected by wishes, but she is unlike most in that her will to succeed is beyond what any doctor would have ever predicted.  She graduated in December of 2009 with a Certificate in Early Childhood Education and a degree in Humanities from Suny Rockland, a trip that has taken four and a half years and hundreds and possibly thousands of hours to complete.

The most important phase of her life is about to begin.  The phase to help those in her community who have helped her.  Without the financial and emotional support over the past twelve years from so many people right here in Rockland County and beyond, she wouldn't have been able to accomplish her goals.

Supporting a wish for a Rockland child every year, through this foundation along with her parents and supporting People to People, Cooperative Pre-Schools, Children who are hungry and cold and a child who might need something like she did years ago will be her new goal.  She will aggressively speak and write and fundraise to complete her mission each year and wtih a great community that surrounds her, she will make a difference.

She is, Jody.