Blessed to be able to celebrate another year! This time last year we were driving back from Ohio from my Grandfathers funeral and celebrating Jordan’s birthday was the last thing on my mind. We were lucky enough to have dinner and cake with Jordan’s family to celebrate once we got back. Had I known then what the year had in store for us, I would have sucked it up and thrown Jordan the biggest party ever, but hindsight is always 20/20. This year is another story. This year we have so much to celebrate and be grateful for. We now know who our support system is, and we know where we stand with people. We now know that family isn’t always blood. It’s the people in your life who want you in theirs; the ones who accept you for who you are. The ones who would do anything to see you smile and who love you no matter what. We are beyond blessed to be surrounded by the most amazing friends who we are lucky enough to call family.

Birthdays have always been a big deal in our house. Yesterday Jordan was woken up with the Beatles birthday song blaring in his ear while the kids danced and yelled happy birthday. Instead of receiving gifts Jordan requested to spend the day as a family and buy the kids gifts instead of them buying him gifts. We have learned the hard way that the best gifts can’t be bought. We had lunch with Lilly and picked up Kai early from preschool so he could help pick out the birthday desserts. Kai is an expert with anything that involves sugar. We had dinner with “family” and we’ll continue celebrating with “family” into the weekend. It’s refreshing to see Jordan finally feeling like the Jordan I met and fell in love with. His labs continue to look good and his doctor is happy with where he is and the progress he has made. Jordan is still working on gaining his strength back and we continue to watch for Graft versus Host Disease to ensure that Jordan’s body doesn’t reject the transplant. We continue some of our preventative habits to help avoid any illnesses.  I will continue to embrace my germophobia and I welcome any/all stares when you see me reminding my kids a thousand times to stop touching everything, lysoling everything in sight and passing out the hanitizer (as Kai calls it) to any and everyone. We have officially come out of hibernation and are out and about. So, if you happen to see the birthday boy this week, please wish him a happy birthday!!!