R.I.P. 2020

2020. A year that will go down in infamy. In February, fresh off celebrating the Chiefs’ Super Bowl LIV win, we found ourselves in Sarasota, FL enjoying another respite from the winter of Kansas City. At the time, there was merely a handful of COVID cases clear on the opposite side of the country in Washington state. Then literally just a few hours after our plane left Florida, the first cases outside of Washington were reported…in Sarasota. A few weeks later, the kids came home for spring break and then were told to stay home for the rest of the semester.

Thanks be to God that spring was coming and winter was going away. Thankfully also this virus only rarely affected children. Still, what words could we add that fully capture the disruption that all have experienced from the lockdowns and lifestyle limitations in this long year?

We strive to not forget the many blessings that we experienced:

We finished the basement renovation! We now enjoy Star Wars in all its 4k glory.

We refinished our driveway and front walk!

And in a moment of wondering if we’d ever get to safely interact with other humans again, we looked into buying my (Marshall’s) dream: an RV. In a moment of sanity, we rented one instead! We went to one of the last bastions of freedom in this country, South Dakota, and had a blast. And, we took our beloved old dog Virginia with us! She happily stayed behind and protected our house on wheels while we biked and hiked and jeeped throughout the Badlands and the Black Hills.

Aimee took her cooking skills to another level. Homemade pasta, ragu sauces, pizza, and yummy baked breads are now frequently on the menu. Not to forget the daily morning ritual of pour-over coffee with home-roasted beans from around the world.

Andy attended Kanakuk for the first time! He spent two weeks at K-West and loved it. The rest of us spent two days at the Lawrence Welk Resort. Woot woot. 😂

And what a year for Impact Foundation. Illustrating the redemptive nature of what Aimee and Jeff and Steve have built, their clients opened the floodgates of generosity to help this hurting world during the early days of the pandemic, reaching Impact’s year goal by the end of April. And it didn’t stop there, marking 2020 as a breakout year for the team. Thank you Lord!

Lastly, we are so thankful for nearly one whole extra year with our sweet old dog, Virginia. “Good Girl”, as we fondly remember her, passed on November 17. What a gift she was! Please scroll down to see our tribute to her. 

As always, see the sidebar or click here for more photos from 2020.

Cheers and blessings,

Marshall, Aimee, Andy, Liam and Reagan