CHAMPAIGN — Sunday will be especially significant for Jordan Simmons and his young family. Simmons will be among 12 local fathers honored by Hood II Hood in a Father’s Day ceremony outside the mentorship organization’s Champaign headquarters. It’s an honor Simmons — a local pastor like his father, Larry — will celebrate with his wife, Kristen, and son, Joshua, who is four months shy of his third birthday.
“I’m very honored to be a part of it,” Simmons said. “It’s really a blessing and an honor to be seen as a leading father in my community.” Jordan and Kristen credit each other for getting through a challenging pregnancy in the months leading up to Joshua’s birth on Oct.
9, 2021. Before that day — about six weeks before Kristen’s due date — Kristen had battled leukemia after it was discovered during a pregnancy screening. Doctors weighed whether an abortion would be best for Kristen’s health.
“He’s a miracle child,” Jordan said. “And we just thank God. He’s 2 years old now and perfectly healthy and everything.
” Faith played an important role in helping the couple through those trying months, which included visits to Barnes Jewish Hospital in St. Louis. “It was definitely our faith and the peace of God that got us through it,” Kristen said.
“It was a very strange thing, and it is something that the typical person, it would kind of flip their world upside-down. Because our faith is so strong in God, we really trust in Him, and.