Against the Odds
Two months before he was born, Eliot was diagnosed with Trisomy 18—a genetic disorder with a very low survival rate. His parents, Matt and Ginny, began writing letters to him daily.
"Dear Eliot: Right now you are two months from being born," Matt wrote in one letter. "Doctors tell us that you won't likely make it to birth. Your mom and I are praying against that. We're praying for healing. We are praying for nothing less than a miracle. You're our first child, and the day of your birth couldn't come sooner."
Against the odds, Eliot survived his birth. "You are already a miracle to us," Matt wrote that day.
Every day that Eliot lived, he beat the odds. The median lifespan for children with Trisomy 18 is just five to 15 days—but Eliot just kept on surviving.
Matt and Ginny's letters to their infant son continued for 99 precious days. They turned their letters and literally thousands of photos of Eliot into a video that has now been seen nearly a million times on YouTube.
Matt and Ginny join Oprah and Celine from their living room in Fayetteville, Arkansas. And they have some big news—they are expecting another baby!
Matt says their tribute to Eliot started as a blog, which they used to keep friends and family updated on his status even before he was born. "Once he was here, we just took a lot of pictures and took a lot of video, and we knew we wanted to put that together in some way to tell the story of his life."
"We knew from day to day that we had that day," Ginny says. "I would tell Matt a lot: 'I'll be sad later. I'm going to enjoy every second now.' So even though his diagnosis never changed, we just decided we were going to enjoy every second that we had."
Celine is moved by that idea. "Life imposes things on you that you can't control, but you still have the choice of how you're going to live through this," she says. "Once you know the diagnosis and it's not good, then you make the best of it."
"We celebrate you," Oprah says. "What an inspiration your family has been to the world."
Be sure to pause my music below. :)
7 comments:
that it the cutest thing. I was crying!
Okay. I was bawling. That was so precious! How hard would that be? What a beautiful baby.
WOW!! That is really neat and so touching. You have inspired me! AND I was so excited cause I thought you had your baby... Good luck with the birth when it does happen!! :)
Holy crap! How amazing are they? I might have to share that with some people I know would really love that....
PS Have you popped yet?? We are so excited for you guys!!
That was so sweet and amazing! It makes you realize how lucky we are to be able to have children and how special each and every one of them are! Hope you're doing ok, you're getting SO close! Can't wait to see the precious little guy!
So, I figured that that clip was going to be sad, but oh my gosh! I couldn't hold back the tears! What an emotional, but inspirational video!
I've seen that clip before, and even though I knew exactly what was going to happen I still bawled like a baby. It reminds us to celebrate every SINGLE day with our kids doesn't it! Good luck with your upcoming delivery!!!!
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