She has a smile that strikes you when you’re in the middle of exhaling and leaves you gasping for air. Sometimes, I watch her and she appears to move in slow motion. The gentle crinkles of her smiling mouth barely change the shape of her face. Her cheeks rise just enough to cast a light without dimming the gracefulness of her piercing eyes. When she smiles, it is with her whole face.

She resumed chemotherapy on Monday after a three-week break. She was anxious about starting up again, but the anxiety never spoiled her otherwise genial mood. We often say, “Jordan gets it done.” And indeed she does. It doesn’t matter how much she may complain, lash out, or fret, she always does what is needed to combat her disease. She is a survivor.Yesterday morning, when Jeanette woke Jordan to see if she was up for school, she was greeted by a cranky admonishment.

We savored every last bite of our Mexican food before making our way to the patio to carve the pumpkins. Luc was already in his costume, a white t-shirt inscribed with a self-designed iron-on that read “this is my Halloween costume. Deal with it.” Jordan was halfway through her transformation into the Princess Aurora from Sleeping Beauty. It was a thoroughly Southern California holiday, with the temperature lingering in the mid 70’s, and our family was ready for a celebration.

She bounced into the room wearing her complete collection of cardinal and gold. Behind her, on the television, USC had just kicked off its home game against Washington State. Jordan rolled her arms and shouted out to rally support from the living room audience, proudly showing off her USC sweatshirt. – Give me a U! Give me an S! Give me a C! What’s that spell? Sometimes she gets it backwards.

Update: We received the results from Jordan’s latest MRI yesterday. Her condition is stable. While it’s not great news, because we’d love to see some progress, the whole family was filled with a sense of forboding that we’d see new growth … and we didn’t … so there’s actually a feeling of relief.