one amazing week

first, and most importantly, news about Helen:
we visited her gastroenterologist yesterday. he presented his findings as a *good news/bad news* situation...personally, i think it to be a *great news/not-so-good news* situation. the bad news is they still have not found a diagnosis...the great news is all the super-scary, pathological types of things have been ruled out. no cystic fibrosis, no crohn's disease, no celiacs disease, no muscular dystrophy, no rare form of diabetes, nor any of the other half-dozen things that would either end her life by age 20 or cause debilitating pain for the rest of her days. and that my friends is a *Glory-Halleluja!!*
the possibilities we are left with are mostly chronic (meaning she may have to live with them controlled by diet and/or medications for forever) and annoying, but having seen what could be, i am profoundly grateful...and Helen in her too-old-for-her-age wisdom is grateful, too.
we have several tests still on the horizon, but for now we are evaluating a completely dairy-free diet (if any of you have fantastic references or recipes...please share!). and if i come across anything fabulous to eat, i'll be sure to let you know about it.

the second bit of news: last Thursday night, Helen was feeling well enough to roughhouse with her little sister...that was the good news. the less than stellar news is that in the midst of this fun, Clara broke her arm. i probably don't need to express to you just how unimpressed a 3 year old is by an aching arm immobilized in a sling. but Clara's a trooper...she finally realized that the only time her arm hurts is when it's out of the sling, and she's been much better about keeping it in.

we had several adventures over the last week: we went to Colonial Williamsburg, caught the ice cream man, and took several family walks; but most notably, we traveled to Amelia, Virginia, on Saturday to try our hands at mining. we had an amazing time...learned all sorts of things about geology in the area and came home with a 5 gallon bucket of rocks and semi-precious stones to polish and play with.



i'll leave you with some photos of our adventure...may your week be just as amazing (minus all the trips to the doctor!)