Shaffer/Jay Family Life: 2020

Shaffer Family Newsletter 2020

January-Adelaide turned 10 on Jan 1st, Gwendolyn turned 7 on Jan 10th, DeeDee turned 75 and Windy turned 45 on January 24th. DeeDee’s daughter, Emily, and sister, Dixie, were able to come out for a big birthday bash.

February-Elnorra turned 15 on February 4th and received her learner’s permit. She drove to the edge of the parking lot, it took 10 minutes. Windy celebrated Valentine’s Day by staying in the hospital for a month with Acute Myeloid Leukemia. Ben was an amazing split custodial parent and picked up the slack when Windy was in the hospital. Windy’s mentor, Lowell Taylor, gave an amazing get well gift of completing several unfinished repairs during the time she was in the hospital, and Lorie, her dad’s wife, was kind enough to drive them there and back again (Spanish Fork, UT to Flagstaff, AZ). Windy also appreciated all the get well cards sent to her.

March-Windy worked super hard to recover from chemo and get to her 2 older daughters’ school musical, the Seussical Jr., and managed to get out on a Friday afternoon only to have all activities canceled due to COVID on Friday evening. We all felt so bad for all the kids and participants of the musical to have it canceled after only 3 performances. Grandma Lorie saw it before leaving for home and the rest of us were planning on going Saturday night.

April-Cordelia turned 13 on April 3rd but due to COVID-19 didn’t get to have a birthday party. We bought a Costco chocolate cake to celebrate instead of commiserate. We also had a fancy dinner on DeeDee’s wedding china. Mid-April Windy spent another week in the hospital for “in-betweener” chemo while insurance pre-approval and bone marrow match tests were processing.

May-Emily, Windy’s sister, was a 100% bone marrow match and willing stem cell donor. Windy went in for her bone marrow transplant on May 18th, received the transplant on May 28th.

June-Windy comes home and proceeds to sleep a lot during recovery. Basement renovations underway so Gwendolyn and Adelaide have their own rooms. DD slept during jackhammers.

July-Windy slept through all of July and half of August. We set off fireworks in the street.

August-Windy and the girls went on family road trips two weekends in a row and finished visiting all the national parks in Utah thanks to Adelaide’s “Every Kid in a Park” pass.

September-Due to COVID-19 we decided to do online schooling. Online school is not for wimps. We all struggle with it but it's safer for all of us if the kids stay home.

October-Windy and the girls went to Goblin Valley State Park, and Ben and the girls went on a road trip all the way to Missouri, where Elnorra drove through the rocky mountains in a snowstorm. Halloween was a blast.

November-Elnorra loves watching Anime in her spare time. Thanksgiving was a small group, just the 12 of us (both households the kids live in). We finally got our own tv for Black Friday.

December-We are all well and relatively happy. Wishing you and yours happy holidays!

A special thanks to everyone near and far who has supported our family in any way this past year.