I could not wait any longer so I decided to use a MailChimp WordPress add on for the email subscription sign up and email post notifications. It is not as simple but it is also not too difficult.
1) I created a free MailChimp account and uploaded my JetPack subscriber list.
2) Then I added a MailChimp plug in on WordPress and pasted in my MailChimp API key for syncing users.
3) Then I created a simple MailChimp subscriber form on WordPress and added it to the page Widgets. I also removed the JetPack subscriber form.
4) On MailChimp side, you can use RSS to email to automatically check and send out post notifications https://mailchimp.com/features/rss-to-email/. It also looks like you can customize those emails.
This was not my first choice but after several weeks of it not working now, I needed to do something to keep my little biz running. Hope that helps someone else while waiting.
