The Shiverdeckers were referred to us by a previous family and we couldn't be more blessed to have found them.

Here's a bit about Griffin, written by his mom, Anna...

Griffin Shiverdecker is the youngest son of Lee and Anna Shiverdecker. He has two older sisters, Millie (6) and Heidi (4), who absolutely adore him! In the fall of 2024, Griffin was constantly getting sick. Ear infections, severe colds, RSV, croup, flu, you name it! It would take him a really long time to get over one illness, just to then come down with the next thing. My mom gut kept telling me that something didn’t seem right, but the doctors just kept telling us it was viral and there wasn’t much they could do for him. In January 2025, Griffin got really sick and was spiking high fevers, stopped walking, and was extremely lethargic. We initially thought he had the flu, but finally after running some initial tests, our pediatrician recommended we go to the ER. His blood counts came back very low, and initially the doctors thought it was a cow’s milk allergy. We were admitted that night and Griffin received his first blood transfusion. The next day, we were sent downtown to Riley’s Children’s Hospital where further tests were conducted. On Sunday, January 26, 2025, Griffin was diagnosed with Acute Lyphomblastic Leukemia (ALL). He was 19 months old. In addition to the cancer, Griffin had a severe underlying infection that took weeks of testing, full body MRIs, and skin biopsies to determine ultimately was a staph infection that had caused nodules to develop on his body, where they also found pockets of cancer cells.

We spent 2 weeks in the hospital after his diagnosis, getting him set up for treatment, port placement and sorting out medications. We are blessed in the fact that Griffin’s specific cancer is very treatable and the survival rate is extremely high. While the treatment itself is a long process, we were grateful for a positive prognosis and hopeful for remission. Griffin will be completing a very rough phase of his treatment in early August and we are hoping he will be moving into mainentance by the end of the year, where appointments and chemo infusions will slow down greatly. (YAY!) Although he has not felt well over the last few weeks, the chemo is doing its job and his bone marrow seems to be slowly producing good blood cells back into his system. Griffin will complete treatment in April 2027 - right before his 4th birthday! We are so eager for him to ring the bell and move into remission. Until then, we appreciate all the prayers, check ins, and support from the most amazing family, friends and community.