I don’t normally watch daytime TV but happened to turn on the TV around 4:00pm Eastern time. Oprah was doing a show about Miracle Children and that caught my attention. Celine Dion was a guest along with several children who have survived the odds.
Toward the end of the show, Oprah introduced the video 99 Balloons. 99 Balloons is the story of Eliot, a little boy born with Trisomy 18. I immediately dropped everything I was doing to watch. We put this video on our website months ago (under Multimedia, Other Videos). I remember the first time I saw this video and couldn’t stop crying. Oprah and Celine reacted similarly. Big, blubbery crying! I burst out in tears this time too and got Lauren all worried!
After showing the video, Oprah interviewed Matt and Ginny, Eliot’s parents. At the time of the show’s taping, Ginny was 38 weeks pregnant with their second child. On October 14th, she gave birth to a healthy little girl, Hazel. I read their blog from time to time, http://thespectacularvernacular.blogspot.com/. I wish I knew Matt and Ginny personally because they are amazing.
Here is 99 Balloons on Oprah’s website: www.oprah.com/media/20081001_tows_99balloons. (There might be an advertisement first but it will be short!)
P.S. Eliot and Carmen were born on the same day- July 20, 2006.
http://www.trisomy18hope.org
Beautiful.
Thanks so much for sharing about the wonderful spotlight shown on Trisomy 18 and children living with it’s impact, by Oprah show. Some good news — there is a scheduled update (and follow up interview with Eliot’s parents) on Oprah again TODAY! We hope that our efforts to get more national attention for our cause will help serve all families affected by Trisomy 18 in the future. Come visit http://www.trisomy18.org/eliot for updates and to learn more about famlies like the the Mooney’s!