Chippie Chan!

Chippie Chan from Kinn-Ming Chan de Velarde on Vimeo.

Bo and Sam!

This is a pic from our visit with the O'Connors in Chicago a few weeks ago. We had a great long weekend in Chicago with Tio Ren and Auntie Jennie, and the O'Connors! We spent Saturday morning at the Museum of Science and Industry. Most of it in the Great Train Exhibit. We had scheduled this weekend to go to Chicago in the hopes of crashing Digestive Disease Week at McCormick Place, but I wasn't registered, and our luck getting a $25 guest pass ran out with our only possible host, the Dutch grad student sent to present their MID genetics work. While I'm grateful that she was gracious enough to answer my email, my emotions cycled from bummed, to angry, to dismissive, back to mad. Oh well. We had a great time catching up, sharing tips and tricks for care, playing with toy trains, looking at toy trains, and impersonating trains. As a famous person once wrote, "trains=toddler crack."

Is this thing on?

Birthday party #1 with MIL on birthday eve. Party #2 an impromptu gathering with our favorite family on the Big Day. And gearing up for party #3 with my family Saturday. Who knows, I may even drag my unwitting family to church, to top it all off. Muah hahaha!

Also: current updates in research include from the last 6 months
-identifying the true human intestinal stem cell (Lgr5)
-regenerated stomach and small intestine from a pigs own cells
-combo stem cell and gene therapy cured a HUMAN genetic disease in vitro

God is good, all the time. All the time, God is good.
Thank you for answering my prayers, stoking the fire of both my hope and my faith, and giving me the strength to keep living and loving the miracles of this life. I continue to believe that a solution for Bo may be in sight during our lives. And that we will continue to celebrate each day we have together, regardless of our proximity to that monumental discovery.

Happy 2nd Birthday!

I am too paranoid and superstitious at this point in Bo's life to make a big deal about his birthday, until it's over. It was a relief to me that his baptism was a month after his birthday last year, so we could celebrate it then. This year, too, I expect to have his second birthday sometime in July. Pictures from his birthday party last year, and only one month old.

Cars!

Almost 2!

Pimp My Ride