It's official, February 2nd marked Kennedy's cure date which means we are done with Leukemia - for good!!! 

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.

 We were lucky.  We got to keep her.  It's a constant reminder of what really matters in life.  Observing is a unique lesson we got out of this.  People act so strange sometimes - they hold possessions near and dear, spend years seeking revenge or harboring resentment, or work at jobs they hate, spending time with people they don't like, etc.  They forget what matters most - but we never will.  That was the gift from this experience.  We appreciate and are grateful for pretty much everything these days.

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.