Valentines She’s ready. Make no doubt. She’s ready. We walked to See’s Candies together to buy her mother a Valentine’s Day present. Three blocks required nearly a half hour, but she walked without complaint. She chatted constantly with every step. Mostly, the conversational threads were random thoughts and wanton whims, but here and there she’d reference the surgery she’s scheduled to have in five short days. There’s very little complaint – almost no hesitation – just talk of what she’ll do when her feet are repaired and how she plans to cope when she can’t walk on her own.

She was ordered to clean her room. It had been awfully quiet up there, so I paid a visit. I did not find an industrious housekeeper at work. Instead, I found clothes all over the floor, books piled on her bed, and a box of sketches strewn out in a corner. It looked like an art center exploded in the middle of her room. Meanwhile, Jordan reclined in her desk chair, feet up on the desk, her left elbow bent on the back of her chair, her right hand nonchalantly clicking her computer mouse as she scrolled through fashion pages online.

She has an abundance of will. She can do anything she sets her mind to. Don’t try to tell her she can’t. She will. It’s the part of her character that is dangerously alluring, at times beguiling, frequently intoxicating, and always humbling. There’s something to be said for the pureness of her determination. It has literally saved her life. And it has been on display all week. Last night we attended her school choir concert.

With progress in the cancer fight comes progress in the digital story. The Jordan’s Journey website will soon move to a new address. Take a sneak peak.Why are we doing this? Two reasons: Jordan’s story is changing and moving into the “life after cancer,” which makes it a good time to consolidate some of the stories with other tales told by Jordan’s dad, Larry; and, Someday, Jordan plans to take over her site.

She heard the neighbors talking in front of our building, leading her to dart up the stairs and change into clothes. We had asked her to change out of her pajamas all afternoon, but she ignored us. Now, she was rustling through her closet. A few minutes later, she nearly tumbled down the stairs in an effort to get out front.