THE END!

The end of chemo treatments as we know it ended JUNE 24th 2011. Nearly three and a half years after hearing those three awful words, we made it. In the beginning, I truly never thought we would get here. Looking at a five and a half year old and imagining him as almost nine, was something that I could not wrap my mind around. But he did continue to grow up and I am pretty sure our little kiddo has passed with flying colors.

I have to admit that we have very mixed feelings about being finished with treatments. On one hand, I am so grateful we made it this far with no problems, but on the other, we are no longer actively preventing his leukemia from returning. Which in turn, means that the word 'relapse' is always in the back of our minds. The probability of this is very low, but Jake has always done his own thing and never seems to do what the doctors say he will. He is an all or nothing kind of kid! And it is scary, but we are pretty darn sure he will be perfect from here on out! He is as healthy as can be and we have had NO problems for such a long time now. We could not be more proud of him. He is not thrilled to be finished as he thinks PCMC is a big party waiting to happen just for him. I know I have said it before, but he doesn't remember the things that Jeff and I do. I am pretty sure that is a huge blessing. Especially considering this kid remembers EVERYTHING. He just knows that doctors equal fun. And we would not want it any other way. Congrats Jakers. We love you and are so proud of you!

This was posted a couple of years ago when we hit our one year mark. I have been meaning to put another HAPPIER video together of the last few years, but can't bring myself to even go through the videos again. I had a hard enough time going through the pictures. It brought back way to many feelings and memories that still hit a little too close to my heart. Because I didn't do a new one, I thought I would post his old video again.



And, of course pictures over the last few years. I enjoy the end ones the most--the ones where we have three healthy happy children. I was very teary going through the first ones again. We had some not so fun moments in there, but some amazing ones that I never want to forget. I am in awe of all that we have learned from this trial. And I know we would not be who we are today without it.