What is I hope to be the final entry of our cancer journey....

Well, hello - and happy December! 

Time has flown. I took some time to continue recovering from the transplant but then we set off for a trip to chase the fall colors and be with many people we care deeply about. I'll paste our Christmas letter below for a few more details on that. 

But first...

Before we left, I met with the oncologist in Denver (Dr. Haverkos) and shared that I was feeling some familiar swollen lymph nodes. He was uncharacteristically reassuring - stating that they could be from my having some recent dental work done. I've gotten pretty good at putting things out of my mind through this whole thing - and going back to what has helped me the most - relying on the fact that the God of the Universe knows how this whole thing (and everything) turns out. And that He is for us. 

So we went on our trip and it was magnificent!

We got home and I did dread getting the PET scan. I vowed to myself I wouldn't look at it until after Andy's mom's memorial we were coordinating and attending last month in Laughlin, NV. 

But I peeked. 

To my surprise, I was reading the first PET scan report in 9 years that showed absolutely no cancer - at all! It took a minute for it to sink in. I sat Andy down on the couch and told him the news. There were tears. 

To say that I feel relief doesn't really capture it. I know there are no guarantees. I know we all have cancer cells in our bodies all the time and I remember that to encourage myself to help the good guys with all I've learned helps - rather than helping the bad guys with bad habits and stress and so forth. I feel like I've walked out of a dimmed room into the light, and it feels really great. 

I knew I wouldn't heal until I was ready. Well, someone must think I'm ready to live, and live abundantly. That's why He came, right? I've put down a lot of burdens I used to carry that I wasn't meant to carry. I've learned I am pretty OK, just being who He created. And I have learned that just being here is enough - there isn't anything to prove in order to make me worthy to be here. 

The world scares me sometimes - not so much for myself but for the future generations. I am reminded that they "are created for such a time as this." God doesn't make mistakes. And, since I no longer feel responsible for everything the way I once did, I have faith that I can love passionately and thank God more than I plead with him to protect everyone. If people are hurting in the future (which I dreaded), I know I can show up for them - and that is enough. God will take care of the rest as He always has. 

Thanks for being on this journey with me - for caring enough to read these entries and for the prayers and everything else you and others have done to support me through it all. I remember people saying, "Make sure you are focused on living, not dying!" That's true for all of us, right? So, let's be about living life to the full, in Jesus' name. 

Christmas Letter 2025: 

May Your Christmas-time Be Merry and Bright

 

Thanksgiving has come and gone. It’s that time of year when we ask the question, “Should we do Christmas cards or a letter this year”? 

Thank you to those who keep in touch. We love keeping up with your lives. Christmas cards/letters are like a gift in the mailbox once a year. We regret how we’ve lost touch with dear people. Social media only goes so far, right? 

  On the other hand, we will try to limit this to a letter- not a book. It’s       been an eventful year. (We are older now - we used bigger font. 🥴

2025 started off with some dread - I (Cathie) was heading into a bone marrow transplant, which  I had avoided for nearly 8 years since being diagnosed with a form of peripheral t-cell lymphoma. The odds weren’t good that it would add time to my life and I felt led to not do it. After about 7 years of vitality unpredicted by the doctors and the statistics, I began to realize it was time for the  transplant. Dear family and friends and I endured a lot the first quarter of this year - in the hospital for 3+ weeks and then in an apartment in near isolation close to the hospital for 2 more months. I experienced kinda fun hallucinations 🤪 and all the side effects of chemotherapy designed to completely kill my immune system so I could accept bone marrow donated by a young woman in Germany. I hope to thank her after the mandatory 1 year post transplant before contact. I’ve experienced none of the feared infections and have experienced only mild Graft-Versus-Host disease; it is considered a good thing to have a bit of it.  

While reading the results of the 9 month post-transplant PET scan a few weeks ago, I couldn’t believe my eyes. The only way to know how I’m doing is via biopsy of what the PET scan shows. THERE IS NOTHING TO BIOPSY for the first time in almost 9 years. To be honest, I feel like I’ve walked out of a dimmed room into new light. I know there are no guarantees, but it appears that today I am cancer free!

The most important truth that has helped me this whole time is that God already knows how this turns out. Other principles that helped were given to me early on: “Your body will show you what to do” and “You can change your mind as you learn and listen.” These 3 anchors are what have given me peace and courage I often didn’t understand, to make difficult decisions with confidence. 

One more thing I need to say: my heart feels a weighty wonder that many people have spent time with the God of the Universe, asking him to lead and heal me. Thank you just doesn’t suffice. I don’t understand at all how He hears us or takes our prayers into account. But we know through His Word - and by our own experience - that He certainly does. And that He is for us. A verse I especially lean on is Romans 8:28 which states that “In all things, God works for the good of those who love Him and are called according to His purpose.” We often don’t understand how the hardest of trials and losses can be for our good, but He promises to use them ALL. 

We are sorry if you are experiencing hard times right now. 

Please let us know how we can be praying for you.

It is a privilege and we would be honored. 

In March we lost Andy’s  mom,  Marlene.                   

She was a spunky, clear thinking, excellent card playing 90 year old and mother/grandmother/and great grandmother to 50 people (including spouses she treated as her own). We are so grateful she went peacefully, living with her youngest child, Linda, in Southern California. 

We celebrated her life with much of the family in Laughlin just before Thanksgiving. 

She and Andy’s dad lived across the river in Bullhead City for many years and are now buried together in Mojave Valley. 

Our kids and grandkids continue to bring blessing after blessing to our lives. All living within 1.5 hours drive in beautiful Colorado is … a miracle. 

Mason (our youngest son) and his awesome wife, Lara, moved to Colorado about 2.5 years ago. It came as a huge surprise to us because we knew they loved the San Diego area and being near Lara’s parents. But they are here and have been building their lives about 1.25 hours drive north of us. They both work for a terrific company called Red 6 and their future looks bright! 

                    

Nolan (our middle son) continues to be the consummate entrepreneur with a radon mitigation business in the Denver area that taps into his professionalism, creativity, and work ethic. He also has a Christmas light installation business that thrives during the holidays. Lexie, his wonderful wife, is just completing her licensing hours after earning her graduate degree at Denver Seminary; we have a new psychotherapist in the family! If you know Lexie, you know she is made to be helping people lean into becoming fully themselves, happy and whole. 

Cameron (our eldest son) and his amazing wife, Hailey, have modeled so much about trusting God and trusting our bodies (including birthing their 5th baby at home before the midwife even got there)! They have a very successful Christmas lighting business in the Colorado Springs area that has now grown to include year-around permanent lighting and landscape lighting. Hailey homeschools their 4 older kids and is completing her certification as a Christian spiritual director. They amaze us and continue to bless us all with little lives that we wonder how we ever lived without. 

Iris (11) is such a beautiful soul, an expert baker, and enthusiast about life. She’s quite the poet and philosopher; she wrote this note to us recently, “What a beautiful, encouraging, and self rising thing it is to be loved - and know it.” Eden (10) is our tall, athletic, empathic soul who is always wanting to build relationships rather than anything else. If we put on a movie for the kids, for example, she invariably would rather play a game or just talk. She talked recently about having trouble sticking to her goal of reading a chapter of the Bible each night but was excited to think about teaming up to read the same messages to talk about them. June (10) is full of love and creativity. She enjoys things like dance and anything feminine. She is focused and is the kid who will always find the person who needs a friend or a hug. Stiles (6) is the BOY of the group, for sure - exploring all God has made him to be in the wake of three older sisters. Everything is about bodily noises, if ya know  what I mean, and all that boys his age seem to love . He is a great dancer and a jokester - loving to scare Nama (that’s what they call me).    

               July 13 of this year - a JOY BOMB was dropped on this special family, as they describe him. We’ve all been blessed to welcome Oaks Andrew Shaffer into the world. This beautiful boy is the most kissed and loved-on baby EVER with 2 parents, 4 doting siblings, and all the rest of us vying to soak him up. He’s healthy and happy and does so well with all the attention and active family life  swirling around him. 

 

We broke all the rules pre-transplant to celebrate my 60th. 

Along with our kids and grands, we had Andy’s brother, Joe and his wife DeeDee, 

two of my sisters, Terri and Julie and their hubbies Paul and Alex, 

and my brother, Trevor and his wife Nancy. 

It was a supremely fun evening that bolstered me through the next few tough months. 

Andy and I pried ourselves away from the kids and grandkids for a once-in-a-lifetime trip to chase the fall colors and see so much of what we have never seen. We left the end of August, towing our travel trailer, to visit Andy’s cousins in Indiana before heading to Michigan for so much beauty and fun. There we met up with our dear friends, Michele and Francois, who had been on the road since May! We continued on together for 10 awe-inspiring weeks. We saw Niagara Falls from the Canadian side, Quebec, and much of the north eastern U.S.. Such beauty! A highlight for me was Philadelphia - to walk where so many brave people walked - in our original capital. I keep thinking about how they all would have been executed for treason if their ideas hadn’t won those crucial battles. They put their lives and livelihoods on the line for the idea of freedom. We then stopped for a week in Washington D.C.. We did all the sightseeing of our nation’s capital. The highlights for me were “The People’s House - a newer exhibit about the White House, and a day spent with Jennifer, Francois’ daughter, on rented scooters to see all the monuments again, taking our time reading the tributes to so many great people. I won’t soon forget hearing Taps played live at the WWI memorial another day, just after our president’s long motorcade drove by. The day at Arlington Cemetery was weighty, thinking about all the veterans, and the families who have lost their sons and daughters/loved ones to war. I’ve never had to experience such fear, loss, sacrifice, and pain. 

A most meaningful day for me was the day at the Supreme Court. To reflect on the blessing of living in a country where the Rule of Law has reined - not perfectly - but has been much of the reason my life has been what it has. Individuals in countries that are not living with this fundamental blessing - that each person is endowed with meaning and importance, deserving of justice - continue to pay the most dear price. I realize I have not talked enough about the history of this nation and the cost of our blessings… I take too much for granted.

We wrapped up the trip heading to the gorgeous states of Virginia, Tennessee, Kentucky and Missouri before stopping at dear friends’ in Kansas on our way home. We won’t soon forget the Blue Ridge Mountains or the gorgeous fall colors of Kentucky. 

High above Niagara Falls at the Skylon Tower 

revolving restaurant.                                                                     Our favorite campground of the trip in                             Montebello, Virginia. 

So much beauty. So many great memories. 

But none of it compares to what we have promised in eternity. 

Just yesterday was a huge day for us as it was a unique and richly blessed Thanksgiving. We are all healthy, thriving, and thankful. We had dear friends with all our kids and grandkids in one place, which is becoming harder as families grow and change. We celebrate and give thanks to our Lord and Savior for our country’s blessings as President Lincoln imagined us doing in 1863: ”I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States...to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens." 

And now we pray for you: 

The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face to shine on you and be gracious to you; the Lord turn his face toward you and give you peace. Amen. 

Numbers 6:25-26

Contact info: 

Andy & Cathie Shaffer

18330 Faulkner St. 

Monument, CO 80132

Andy - 949-683-6427

drewbud77@hotmail.com (don’t check often)

Cathie - 949-683-6426

cshaffer1964@gmail.com (don’t check often)

wearesurroundedbylove.blogspot.com

For Shaklee: call Cathie or email shaffer_catherine@icloud.com