To celebrate, we went out to dinner, Grandma, Grandpa, Uncle Sergey and Nicole celebrated with us. Kennedy picked sushi. The next day, we let Kennedy play hooky and I took her for a relaxing mani-pedi and then sprung Maddox from school early for lunch with Grandma. Kennedy had a blast. A big thanks to the Simonians for the beautiful fruit arrangement and Lannoye's for the flowers - Kennedy was so appreciative!
I still have my moments of wonder - for example, at Maddox's wrestling meets, Kennedy loves to play with an adorable little wrestler on our team, a 5 year old girl. When I see them together I can't believe how young Kennedy was when she was diagnosed. I look at Kennedy standing next to this little 5-year old and she looks like a giant at 9 years old. I wonder how much she missed, how much we all missed the first 2 years of treatment. What would life have been like if she never got sick? Sad that we can't give her those years back to be a healthy and vibrant normal little kid.
Then I manually shift my thinking to the positive - of how much she's grown in 5 years and how lucky we got, the incredible friends we met along the journey (Kate, Donna, Megan, her incredible doctors), the invaluable lessons we learned, the appreciation for life - a better perspective.
So with that said, hug your loved ones tight, remember what really matters and don't take anything or anyone for granted - every moment is a blessing.
Thanks for taking this journey with us! We will be reaching out for the CureSearch Chicago 2017 Walk soon and would appreciate any support - they do a great job backing childhood cancer research and protocols.
Love,
Edan Joy Gelt, Gene Khalimsky, Maddox Khalimsky, Kennedy Khalimsky and our furry son Jaxon.
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