In January of 2004, our daughter Savannah (5 years old at the time), became ill. It came on gradually. At first she just seemed more tired then usual. Then, I noticed she was thirsty all the time and we couldn’t even go to the grocery store without her needing to use the restroom. That’s when I suspected a bladder infection, so I made an appointment with her doctor. January 15, 2004 is the day our lives changed forever. I drove in a horrible snow storm to take her to the doctor, only to find them closed. Deciding to take her back first thing in the morning, we came home. That night things changed drastically and suddenly. She wouldn’t eat her dinner so I begged her to eat a yogart. Within minutes she was vomiting. Off to the ER we went! I told them I wanted them to check her blood sugar. “Maybe she’s diabetic”. The nurse looked at me like I was crazy. She continued to ask Savannah questions and after several minutes she came in with a finger pick. She checked her and read 424 on the monitor, she retested. Again, 424. She looked right at me and I’ll never forget her words. “You were right on, I’m sorry.” I thought I would faint. I wanted to cry, but as a parent you have to remain in control for your children. My husband and I were in shock, we just stared at each other. Things happened very fast after that. Insulin in an IV, calling her doctor, an ambulance ride to Children’s Hospital in Detroit, more nurses and doctors, more tests.

   The first few days home were horrible. We were so afraid to do something wrong and have her end up back in the hospital. Unlike before diabetes, now it was very important that she eats her carbs. It didn’t matter if she ate the buns before, and she almost never did. Now the bun was more important than the burger and crackers (another thing she seldom ate), were a diabetic staple. Within weeks she was complaining of chronic belly aches. She was bloated and gassy too. We mentioned it to the diabetic staff when we called in her numbers for insulin adjustment and asked if it could be the insulin. They were sure that wasn’t it and recommended gas medicine as we had already been doing. About the third week, early February of 2004, I mentioned the chronic belly aches again. This time I got an interesting response. “Do you think she could be a Celiac?” I had never heard about Celiac disease before. After she gave me a quick description and mentioned that it was more common in diabetic children, I wanted to learn more right away. I went on-line and read all about it. I printed the tests out and took them to her doctor. He agreed to test for it and sure enough, she failed miserably!! She was a Celiac!

   O.K., so what can she eat? I got some basic diet information on-line and found a store. It was 45 minutes away and expensive, but they had what we needed and she needed to eat! From there we found our support group TCCSG, and the bakery, Celiac Specialties.

   Now, I’m starting to think that this “irritable bowel” I was diagnosed with back in 1994 may be Celiac Disease. Truthfully, I didn’t even want to take the tests, I didn’t want to know. I didn’t want to change my diet. I didn’t want to be a Celiac, nobody does. So, I put off testing for a couple more months. Eventually I knew I had to find out, my health was at risk. When I did finally test, I failed miserably! This lead to me being diagnosed as well. As of the time of this writing, we are in the process of screening other family members. It came from someone, and Savannah and I cannot be the only two people in the entire family with the disease.

   In July of 2004, after much research and talking to other diabetic families, we decided to put Savannah on an insulin pump. This has been a wonderful thing and we would recommend it for all diabetic children.

   In November 2003, we found out we were having a baby. We were very happy and ready to tell the family when Savannah got sick in January. In August of 2004, our son Robert was born. I wish I could say that I don’t worry about him ever becoming diabetic or being a Celiac, but I do worry about that. I just try not to worry too much. We have no other diabetics and no known Celiac’s in our families. I have Robert on a GF diet “just in case”. We are planning to have him screened when he gets older.

   In January of 2005, my sister Sue and I spent the day together running all over to find and stock up on our gluten free food. She was very surprised how difficult it was to locate everything. Many places carry a few GF items, but few places carry many GF items and they’re far away and pricey. My sister commented that I should just take orders for others in our area (downriver) and pick up their stuff for a fee. We laughed at first, but within minutes a business idea was in the making. First, there is nothing all gluten free downriver. So we were planning to pick up food and do local deliveries. Then, we decided to sell on line so they could shop, order and pay without us having a store. We talked about the cost. If we were going to do this right, we needed to by the food wholesale and pass the savings on to our customers. Of course we wanted to carry the best brands and the bakery we loved so much. Then we decided that we needed a store front for our local customers. We found our location in Wyandotte, right down the street from where our mother grew up; a great city and a perfect downriver (Metro-Detroit) location.

   Thanks for reading our story. It never really ends, but I’d like to try and stop here by saying that life is good. God has blessed us. Savannah is healthy and happy and we are turning our lemons into lemonade!

   Because we are mothers, it is especially important to us that we are kid friendly, so you will find many “goodies” in our product line. God bless all the children that have so much to deal with in their young lives.

   Speaking as a Celiac, it is my belief that more Celiac’s would follow the GF diet if the food tasted better and the prices were more affordable. I know that many times I saved the GF food for Savannah and ate the gluten food because it was more readily available and affordable. It is our sincere hope that we can help all of our customers to maintain the GF diet by making it more convenient and affordable. We are/will carry the BEST products of the BEST brands. We hope that you will enjoy the taste and variety of our products. Remember, if you don’t see your favorites, send us an e-mail, if we get enough requests for that item we will carry it. (Frozen food will be available to our walk-in customers soon) We use vitamins in our diet as do many with CD, so we are planning to carry vitamins in our product line as well. All gluten free. (Note: Vitamins are currently available in our store!)

   Finally, from both of our families, we thank you very much for your business. Stay healthy!!