The BulleTin • Sunday, May 9, 2021 A5
Ryan Brennecke/The Bulletin
Madeline Drescher and her two older children Hanna and Max watch as her daughter Mae attempts to
take a few steps while spending time together outside of their Bend home Thursday.
Leslie Neugebauer and her partner the day their daughter, Lyla, was born in 2020.
Submitted photo
Continued from previous page
that one month than he did
in his entire life,” Neugebauer
said. “And I felt terrible, but it
also felt like I had no other op-
tion.”
But the pandemic did bring
some positives. Working from
home meant not having to
pump breast milk in the office
during the day, which was a
relief, she said. Neugebauer is
also grateful for how working
from home allowed her to get
extra time to bond with Lyla.
“Every time I imagined how
hard it was for me, I imagined
how much harder it could have
been,” she said.
The first time Kite took her
daughter Olive to a grocery
store, someone there called her
“one of those pandemic ba-
bies.”
At first, Kite found the com-
ment rude — a reminder of the
negative marker her daughter
will always have when some-
one asks for her birth date.
But it is also a reminder of
something positive: Even in a
year as awful as 2020, some-
thing good came out of it.
“It was such a tough year
and so many bad things hap-
“Every time I imagined
how hard it was for me, I
imagined how much harder
it could have been.”
— Leslie Neugebauer, who
said raising a newborn in the
pandemic felt like every decision
she made had higher stakes
than decisions she had
previously made
pened, but we ended up with
this beautiful baby girl,” Kite
said.
With her unemployment
payments delayed, Kite and
her husband survived on re-
ceiving government issued
food assistance and financial
assistance from Neighbor Im-
pact to help pay their medical
bills. The mortgage of their La
Pine home was deferred due to
COVID-19. The well that ran
dry the week Olive was born
was fixed thanks to an emer-
gency loan from Neighbor Im-
pact.
Despite the challenges, her
family never went without ba-
sic necessities, Kite said.
“All in all, I think we were re-
ally fortunate,” she said.
The greatest lesson of the
pandemic involved perspec-
tive, Kite said. Obligations that
used to matter, just seem silly
now after a year of quarantine.
Instead, Kite remembers do-
ing things like getting dressed
up in overalls, turning on mu-
sic and having a dance party in
the living room.
“It’s not ideal it took a pan-
demic to force that, but it defi-
nitely made us appreciate hav-
ing a family,” Kite said.
Nearly a year after being
fired, Kite finally got her un-
employment checks from the
state.
The pandemic slowed down
life enough for Kite and her
partner to do something they
had wanted to do for the past
10 years, but never found the
time to do: get married.
The week she received her
check, Kite used the money to
take her family to Lincoln City,
where they decided to have an
impromptu beach wedding —
just the four of them.
“It felt like the right time,”
Kite said.
e e
Reporter: 541-633-2160,
bvisser@bendbulletin.com
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