Feeling the Real Impact of our Work

Last night, a very cool thing happened. Jordan was publicly announced as a speaker at TEDxCoMo - a local TEDx planned in Columbia, MO in April. Jordan has a chance to contribute to a conversation about being a "citizen." That's a general word that has a lot of opportunity for interpretation. Jordan plans to share her perspective about what she thinks about physical differences and how she views differences in society. Big stuff.This past year has given Jordan an opportunity to step up as a voice of confidence and creativity. These past few weeks have turned up her message of confidence. And when a news producer from a different part of the world contacted me early this morning about traveling abroad to give Jordan a chance to share her perspective, it hit me how all these years of work advocating for our kids is making an impact. It took a lot of glitter and years of learning and growing as a parent and for Jordan to grow into her strengths.When CNN.com came out with the piece on Jordan, some friends told me their kids had an assignment to write about a current event and they picked Jordan's story. How incredible to know kids were sharing details about limb differences and the power of using your differences for fun? A high school student from North Carolina, Emma Waller, was given an assignment in her visual arts class to draw a news article. The result was this beautiful piece of work depicting Jordan as a superhero, The Glitterator. Wow.We don't dwell on this swell of attention at home. The impact and reach Jordan is making is thrilling and a bit overwhelming. I'm not quite sure how to frame it all for Jordan without it feeling like a burden. I want to frame it in a celebratory way. All these years of mentoring and advocating is helping the world change its perception of physical differences one blast of glitter at a time.