Overcoming all obstacles... Eden Gray Jordan

Noreen Hyslop photo Eden Gray Jordan is pictured with her daughter, Kaylee. Jordan is the first college graduate to have participated in the local Mother-to-Mother Program.

Eden Gray's strength and determination were first tested as a child, when she was diagnosed at the age of eight with acute lymphatic leukemia. She faced nearly a year of grueling chemotherapy, and fought back from the devastation of first the disease, and then the treatments. She was home schooled through Puxico Schools for nearly a year and managed to stay on track with her classmates, returning to Puxico Elementary School in the fall of 1996.

It was perhaps the strength gained from having beaten the life-threatening illness that has not only sustained Eden over the years, but has also served to inspire and motivate others along her path to success.

When she was 17, just three days after completing her junior year in high school and cancer free, Gray gave birth to a healthy baby girl. She named her daughter Kaylee and later married Kaylee's father, Cainan Jordan. Never missing a beat, Eden returned to school for her senior year and graduated with honors in May 2006.

It was soon after graduation that Eden found out about the Mother-to-Mother Program, based at Dexter's Regional Healthcare Foundation. The program offers guidance and incentives to young mothers who are encouraged to further their education and/or seek gainful employment as they move toward self-sufficiency.

"I found out about the program through the Puxico Parents as Teachers Program when Kaylee was about three months old," Jordan explains. "I was encouraged to stay in school and after graduating in 2006, I enrolled at Three Rivers Community College in Poplar Bluff."

Jordan has never missed attending a semester at TRCC, later working through the cooperative program that links Hannibal-LaGrange College with the local campus. She will receive her degree at Hannibal on Dec. 19.

"I attended every winter, spring, summer and fall semester," the ambitious teacher-to-be explains.

Her name consistently appeared on the Dean's List throughout her college career. As impressive, she served as president, not only of the Missouri State Teachers Association's Student organization, but also of Sigma Kappa Delta, an on-campus honor society.

All the while, Eden met regularly with the Mother-to-Mother coordinators in Dexter and earned incentives through a number of avenues that served her well as a full time student raising a small child.

"I earned extra points and Mother-to-Mother "baby bucks" by maintaining my GPA and for making the Dean's List," she explains. "And I used those points to shop at the Mother-to-Mother boutique for clothes for Kaylee and even diapers and supplies."

"I always read to Kaylee anyway, and I got to add more points and incentives by reporting what books we had read."

When school began in the fall this year, Eden reported not to TRCC's campus, but back to the elementary school in which she grew up at Puxico to begin her student teaching experience.

"I spent some time in a fifth grade classroom first and then completed my student teaching in first grade with Jennifer Parsley," she says, "and I absolutely love it!"

Teaching, for Eden Gray Jordan, is something she knew she wanted to do since she was her daughter's age, and to see her in the classroom is to witness what seems to come as second nature to the young mother, according to Linda Dowdy, Eden's Mother-to-Mother coordinator.

Dowdy has nothing but praise for the program's first college graduate and success story.

"Eden should serve as an inspiration to every young mother who might encounter obstacles in her path to personal success. She has overcome every obstacle and turned every negative into a positive along her journey to success. The Mother-to-Mother Program could not be more proud of her accomplishments. She is a born teacher and a born leader with a bright future ahead of her. She has worked hard, and all her efforts have paid off."

Jordan completed her final day of student teaching at Puxico Elementary on Wednesday this week, but she's not quite ready to depart from the children she has come to love.

"My time is actually up," she smiles, "but I'm going to stick around until the end of the semester just for fun."

Her words are spoken like someone who has a true passion for her job in the classroom. She is what Dowdy refers to as "a born teacher," full of enthusiasm, passion and appreciation and looking forward to a career molding young minds and guiding them to a bright future as well.