Day 5 Mito in Our Lives

I find myself sitting here today, beaming with pride. I’ve long known that my daughter is a very brave child, yet today her level of bravery amazes me. This week as you know is Mitochondrial Disease Awareness week and I’m doing all that I can to raise awareness with all my capability. My daughter Jordan is a very private child, so when I asked her how she felt about sharing her story of mito and its effect on her life, her response was not surprising: “I would but I don’t want anyone to think I’m weird”.  After a very tender talk with her, she began to understand the importance of sharing her struggles with mitochondrial disease. Today, she took it a step further and shared a very personal side of her life with her entire class. Below is a recap of what happened today from her third grade teacher..

Today Jordan shared the book Energy Makers & Mito Kids with our class.  It is such a great kid friendly book that describes what Jordan deals with daily. I’m so proud of her decision to read this book aloud to our classmates, she did an awesome job!  J As she read, I noticed a lot of facial expressions on her classmates faces.  Many of them were like….so that’s why Jordan does this or so that explains Jordan’s nap every day.  It was wonderful to see, they truly know why now!  J  When Jordan was finished reading she even answered some questions about Mito that her classmates did not understand.  Once again I was like …. WOW!!!   She then went on to share about her upcoming surgery that she will have this October.  I was thrilled to see how upbeat she was about the surgery. She explained to us why the surgery was necessary, and why it is beneficial to her.  I’m very proud of her for sharing this information with us today. She is such an amazing child and I pray that one day they will too have a cure for Mito.  She truly made me smile today!

P.S. Even though she was not here for some of this week, we wore our green Mito ribbons in her honor!!!  

How amazing is this child? If Jordan is willing to place herself in the spotlight in an attempt to educate and spread awareness, I ask you, how far out of your comfort zone will you step to try to spread awareness? This disease is killing children across the globe yet most have never heard the name mentioned. Please take a stand, stand with us to spread the word, and let’s stand together and raise awareness.