“He had the sweetest cry I’ve ever heard. I can still hear it ringing in my ears.”
Ginny and Matt Mooney’s baby boy, Eliot, spent 99 days on Earth before he went to be with Jesus.
As they grieved, the Mooneys knew they had to share what they had learned through Eliot’s precious life.
Listen to their story in the final episode of the five-part podcast series, “More Than Our Abilities.”
Visit their organization's website to watch the video about Eliot, and follow them on Instagram.
You can connect with us through email at gps@billygraham.org or on Billy Graham Radio on Facebook.
“He had the sweetest cry I’ve ever heard. I can still hear it ringing in my ears.”
Ginny and Matt Mooney’s baby boy, Eliot, spent 99 days on Earth before he went to be with Jesus.
As they grieved, the Mooneys knew they had to share what they had learned through Eliot’s precious life.
Listen to their story in the final episode of the five-part podcast series, “More Than Our Abilities.”
Visit their organization's website to watch the video about Eliot, and follow them on Instagram.
You can connect with us through email at gps@billygraham.org or on Billy Graham Radio on Facebook.
Ginny Mooney:
00:00:00 Eliot came and he had the sweetest cry I've ever heard. I still can hear it ringing in my ears.
Jim Kirkland:
00:00:06 Ginny and Matt Mooney’s baby boy, Eliot, spent 99 days on this earth before he went to be with Jesus.
Matt Mooney:
00:00:12 Grief has a funny way of just isolating you and making you feel alone, making you feel as though you're not walking through it together sometimes. And so, it was hard and it was low.
Jim Kirkland:
00:00:23 In the midst of their grief, Matt and Ginny knew they had to put into practice what they learned through Eliot’s precious life…and share that with others. I’m Jim Kirkland.
Phil Fleischman:
00:00:32 And I’m Phil Fleischman. You’re listening to the fifth and final episode in our 5-part series, “More Than Our Abilities.” It’s part of GPS: God. People. Stories, an outreach of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association. You heard Matt Mooney say that grief has a way of making you feel “alone.” Well, Billy Graham will have more to say about that a little later in this episode.
Billy Graham:
00:00:53 That word alone. How many people feel alone? The Bible teaches something about loneliness.
Phil Fleischman:
00:01:02 And you’ll hear more about what the Bible teaches about loneliness from Billy Graham, later in the episode. But first, we want to quickly mention a website you can go to—or share with a friend. It’s Find-Peace-with-God-dot-net. It walks you through who Jesus Christ is and why we celebrate Him during the Christmas season that we’re now entering. There are short videos there for you to check out, and there’s an option to chat with one of our trained volunteers. Again, the address is Find-Peace-with-God-dot-net.
V.O.:
00:01:30 GPS: God. People. Stories
Jim Kirkland:
00:01:37 Our story begins with a guy and a girl growing up in neighboring states, both in Christian homes.
Matt Mooney:
00:01:43 I grew up in Arkansas.
Ginny Mooney:
00:01:45 I grew up in a very small community in Louisiana.
Jim Kirkland:
00:01:51 Ginny Gattle was surrounded by God’s truth, but it seemed like something for… other people.
Ginny Mooney:
00:01:57 I did not understand grace or the concept of grace. I kind of had this mentality of like, “Well, I'll never be good enough for that and for the people that are like that and are around me and so see you later.” Just that was their thing.
Jim Kirkland:
00:02:12 When Ginny went to college in Alabama, she made a friend who would play a pivotal role in her journey of faith.
Ginny Mooney:
00:02:18 And her family is from Tuscaloosa and she invited me to their house cuz her mom would cook food for college students. And she just really befriended me in a really clear way and loved me well. It was through that friendship that I learned more about these missing pieces in my mind about the grace of God and that it was not actually dependent on my actions. Like, I was never gonna actually be good enough. I had that right but that it was Jesus who was actually going to draw me to the Father, not my own works.
Matt Mooney:
00:02:50 My story is a little bit different than Ginny's in that I grabbed hold of faith very young and I grabbed hold of it with both hands as well as I knew how at the age of about six or seven.
Phil Fleischman:
00:03:01 Matt Mooney grew up in what he calls a “Christian bubble.” But as he got older, he wrestled with some questions about his faith.
Matt Mooney:
00:03:08 And so as I grew people whose faith I looked to and books that I read and were really people who were comfortable questioning and that for me was just huge. To find people and voices, whether they were authors or in books who didn't necessarily for me look polished or looked like they had all the answers, but were really asking questions.
Phil Fleischman:
00:03:29 Matt and Ginny were each getting to know God better, before they knew each other.
Ginny Mooney:
00:03:34 We worked at a Christian sports camp in Missouri, and that's where we met, in college not long after I actually came to Faith.
Matt Mooney:
00:03:40 Lo and behold, walking up the dirt road came one Ginny Gattle at the time, and I… I set my heart to having that name changed at some point. And so we began to date and got married and fell in love on the shores of Table Rock Lake.
Jim Kirkland:
00:03:56 After college, Ginny and Matt shared their life together in Fort Worth, Texas, working in youth ministry.
Matt Mooney:
00:04:02 We had very little of what they call money at that time. I think the best way to start a marriage is with nothing. I don't know that you wanna stay there, good if you do, uh, fine if you do. But we had none of the money and all of the joy.
Jim Kirkland:
00:04:17 From Fort Worth, their next stop was Fayetteville, Arkansas, where Matt enrolled in law school and Ginny did odd jobs here and there. They didn’t know what the future held, but they were clear on one thing:
Ginny Mooney:
00:04:27 There was something in our hearts that we just knew that we wanted to follow Jesus anywhere. And I think if you were to ask me as 23-year-old I would say I'd go overseas, I'd live in different conditions, but I didn't think of any other ways necessarily that that would live out. But that is where the Lord for sure sparked in both of us, that we were gonna live our lives for Him no matter what. And at that point didn't know what it would mean.
Phil Fleischman:
00:04:58 One year into law school, Matt and Ginny found out they were expecting.
Ginny Mooney:
00:05:02 We didn't know if it was a boy or a girl but we were definitely really excited. We had been married five years, we knew we wanted start a family, maybe not year one in law school, but we were very excited.
Phil Fleischman:
00:05:13 Around the halfway mark of the pregnancy, an ultrasound revealed a few things that doctors needed to keep an eye on. It was nothing that seemed like a huge deal at the time…
Jim Kirkland:
00:05:22 But a few months later, another ultrasound led to a heartbreaking diagnosis.
Ginny Mooney:
00:05:28 There was, like, this really distinct moment that both of us remember really well where a team of folks walked in. They came in and we could tell right away, I mean your heart sinks a little, they all walk in with a serious tone and they tell us that it looks like our child would have something called trisomy 18. And we had further testing to figure out the certainty of that and got that diagnosis when he was in utero. And started to learn about trisomy 18 and knew that most children with trisomy 18, a lot of times they don't make it to birth. And if they do, they don't live very long.
Jim Kirkland:
00:06:04 Throughout the final weeks of the pregnancy, Ginny and Matt grappled with the heavy reality they were facing.
Ginny Mooney:
00:06:10 And what we saw in both of us is the different ways that we would turn to Jesus in that time of just what was the start of sadness and grief in us. And I didn't really know what to pray and would just pray psalms over and over again cuz I didn't know. And I remember hearing Matt just mumbling through the house, just praying nonstop. So we really just kind of fell before the Lord in those days. And I think part of that, and I think this is directly from the Spirit of God, was I could feel him kick and move. And, you know, what had been told was that he might not live for very long, but I was so in tune with that he was alive now in his life and what a gift it was. And so somewhere along the way, I remember telling Matt, “We can be sad later, but we're gonna just love this baby right now.”
Phil Fleischman:
00:07:01 It was on July 20th, 2006, that Ginny gave birth to their son.
Ginny Mooney:
00:07:06 Eliot came and he had the sweetest cry I've ever heard. I still can hear it ringing in my ears. It was soft, but it was a distinct cry. And so, they checked him out and then they were like, “If it's okay with you, we're gonna take him down the hallway”. And I said, “Yeah, like, that's great.” I knew that this is marker of okay, he's doing all right. So Matt had had a pink shirt and a blue shirt and he threw the blue shirt out to people who were praying and waiting and just, like, a whole tribe of people who loved Eliot before he even came and loved us so well.
Phil Fleischman:
00:07:39 Eliot spent two weeks in the NICU.
Matt Mooney:
00:07:42 He had oxygen, he was tube fed. But for us new parents we didn't know any better anyway, so whatever they taught us we were learning all about having a kid for the first time anyway. And so, we were learning how to take care of our son and we were overjoyed to do that. And we… we had prayed and prayed that we'd be able to go home with him and take him home. And so, after two weeks in the NICU, big accomplishment was getting to take Eliot home and getting to be there as a family.
Jim Kirkland:
00:08:10 Ginny and Matt poured themselves into caring for their baby boy. They cherished their time as a family of three. In fact, while many parents celebrate each month of their baby’s life, the Mooney’s celebrated each day of Eliot’s life—specifically, at 4:59, the time he was born.
Phil Fleischman:
00:08:28 Yeah, and they got to celebrate Eliot 99 times. Then, he went to be with Jesus.
Matt Mooney:
00:08:34 We released a balloon for every day of Eliot's life at his funeral. And so, there's a video called 99 balloons kind of about his life as well that people have gotten to see and be a part of.
Phil Fleischman:
00:08:46 That video has been viewed 4.9 million times. At the end of the video is a Bible verse from the book of Job. It says, “God gives. God takes. God’s name be ever blessed.”
Jim Kirkland:
00:09:00 We don’t need to tell you that losing Eliot was devastating. Ginny and Matt had joyfully cared for him every second of those 99 days.
Matt Mooney:
00:09:09 And all of that was just gone, and it was quiet, and we were sad, and our marriage was hard for the first time. And if you're having a good day, a better day in grief, and your wife is not, it turns out you're not having a good day. And vice versa. Though, Ginny was the only one that understood what I was going through, you know, grief has a funny way of just isolating you and making you feel alone, making you feel as though you're not walking through it together sometimes. And so, it was hard and it was low and we, just as was our faith, we took that to God.
Jim Kirkland:
00:09:43 Matt says God’s grace to Ginny and him during that season was twofold.
Matt Mooney:
00:09:47 One, we felt very able to take our frustration and anger and grief and the ugliness of all of that straightway to Him. We didn't feel like we had to hide that from Him, that he was big enough to handle it and loved us enough to take all the ugliness that we brought. And then the other grace was we never questioned for us that somehow it would be better if we were apart, if Ginny and I weren't married, that somehow that made any of this better, even though it was hard and even though we were isolated and even though we were grieving. And so, that was God's goodness to us during those days.
Phil Fleischman:
00:10:20 As time passed, Ginny and Matt began to pray about what was next for them.
Matt Mooney:
00:10:25 And how would we live out the things that we believed God had taught us through Eliot's life, which was primarily around this idea of just the worth and value of everybody regardless of if they were disabled or not, or if they had a condition or a diagnosis or not, that… that God has made and created us and that we carry in us the image of God.
Phil Fleischman:
00:10:46 The image of God…or the Imago Dei. It’s a popular term in Christian circles, and it’s one Matt and Ginny would have said they knew all about, even before Eliot. But after those 99 days, something had changed. The Imago Dei wasn’t just an abstract idea anymore.
Matt Mooney:
00:11:03 We lived it and we experienced it through Eliot to just see how great God was through his life and how worthy of celebration his life was, and how much we loved him and how much that must be a reflection of how much God loves all of us. And so, in that moment, we begin to dream and think about what we would do. We had had some amazing ways of sharing Eliot's story. We got to go on Oprah’s show and talk about Eliot. We went on the Today Show and talked about Eliot, which sounds really cool, but it's really not cool at all when it's the hardest thing that you've ever walked through to go into those forums and open that up.
Jim Kirkland:
00:11:38 Ginny and Matt went public with their story to give glory to God. Eliot’s life was so short. But it was significant; it was worthy of sharing with a world that’s often fixated on the flashiest success stories.
Matt Mooney:
00:11:52 And they were able to hear things that they otherwise never would've been able to. And so, we were honored to do that. And so, as we shared the story, we began to dream about what it might look like to live in light of what God had taught us through Eliot.
Jim Kirkland:
00:12:04 One of the things the Mooney’s experienced during Eliot’s life on earth was the beauty of community. Their family, friends, and brothers and sisters in Christ had surrounded them with love. And everybody felt blessed…not just the Mooney family, but every person who had the chance to be around Eliot.
Phil Fleischman:
00:12:21 Ginny and Matt began to pray about how they could help others know the kind of joy they had experienced, while loving and supporting families with disabilities.
Ginny Mooney:
00:12:30 And so this idea of respite, there were times… for those of you who don't know what respite is, respite is a word used to give people a break who do full-time caretaking. So, a lot of times you'll hear the word respite surrounding those who take care of maybe elderly parents or a lot of times, with, obviously, with disability as well. Like, full-time caretakers it's really hard to get a break. It's really hard to take a minute. It's very a different reality than when you care for children that don't have any medical, physical, emotional, intellectual needs.
Phil Fleischman:
00:13:03 It was through this idea of “respite” that the ministry 99 Balloons was born.
Ginny Mooney:
00:13:09 And the first thing 99 balloons did was develop this night called Recess. And Recess is a respite program. It gives parents a few hours of a break. And we train volunteers through a local church to enjoy, take care of. But sometimes when you hear take care of, it feels like a burden. It is actually a party. It is the best thing ever. So volunteers are trained to just understand what it's like to have a blast with a kid with disability for a few hours where parents get a break. And then also siblings, it's, all the kids come, siblings come as well so that they have a special night for them too.
Matt Mooney:
00:13:50 We had no knowledge. I had no knowledge of any disability otherwise, other than Eliot. But we thought that sounds like a really fun way to give people the experience in a small way of what we got to have. Like, what we got to have was time with an individual who was labeled with the diagnosis and seen as different by other people. And then we spent time with him and our life was changed. So we thought, “Hey, if we could gather our friends together and we could get the children with disability to come, we could meet a real need of parents by providing them respite.” But we could also just be this portal into having this transformation happen over and over again whereby people without disability get to spend time with some kiddos with disability, which have been so meaningful to us.
Jim Kirkland:
00:14:38 The first Recess event in November 2007. It included 12 children with disabilities and their families.
Ginny Mooney:
00:14:45 And we weren't necessarily looking at that time to grow this thing. But what happens is if you start to fulfill a need <laugh> that maybe isn’t… I mean all of a sudden we would bopped along for a little while and then people would say, “Oh, we should do this in our church. Oh, my cousin has a child with cerebral palsy and she never has a break. I should do this in my church for her. I bet she knows other people.” And I mean it just spread like that and it still is to this day.
Jim Kirkland:
00:15:15 So the Recess events…and 99 Balloons…grew and multiplied. Along the way, the Mooney’s had two more children. While Hazel and Anders were growing up, Matt and Ginny began to learn more about the needs of children with disabilities on a global scale.
Matt Mooney:
00:15:32 We were doing Recess. We said, well man, we want to be a part of that global story of changing that global story and the perception of that a person with disability is a curse or a person with disability is that that is a punishment. And so, we partnered with a local therapy group that was going to Ukraine through 99 Balloons, and we got to know of a little girl there.
Phil Fleischman:
00:15:55 She was immobile and nonverbal, living in an orphanage in Eastern Ukraine.
Matt Mooney:
00:16:00 She was in a crib for 23 hours of a typical day while she was there, she was malnourished. And the story goes on and on. But, you know, when we looked at her, we saw what God had taught us through Eliot, and we saw a life worthy and we saw a beautiful girl.
Phil Fleischman:
00:16:16 Matt and Ginny began to pray about this little girl.
Matt Mooney:
00:16:19 And so, we had a two-year-old and a three-year-old at the time back home. And I had quit the jobs that I had and in order to do this thing called 99 Balloons. And this thing called 99 Balloons didn't have any money. So, it currently didn't pay. And at this particular point in time is when Ginny thinks and comes to me and says, “I think, you know, we might want to think about adopting this girl named Lena, whose story we're telling.” And I said, “Well, something to the effect of, ‘Well, you have more faith than I do. I'm not there yet, it turns out.” But God is gracious and in His graciousness and goodness, He led us to begin walking down that road of making Lena our daughter. So we adopted Lena when she was five.
Jim Kirkland:
00:16:57 While Matt and Ginny rescued Lena from her bleak life in the Ukrainian orphanage and gave her a new life as part of their loving family, she’s given them something, too.
Matt Mooney:
00:17:08 This story often gets told as though we're the heroes in the Lena story. I assure you that we're not. We are the recipients of the joy that she's brought into our home. And she's brought a lot, I mean, don't get me wrong, she has profound autism, she has cerebral palsy, but you know what? She's wonderful. She's beautiful. So now we have Lena, Hazel and Anders. They're now all teenagers. If you were to fast forward. All in the teen years, so pray for the Mooney clan. Um…
Ginny Mooney:
00:17:36 <laugh> Matt likes to say we're feeling our way through the days.
Matt Mooney:
00:17:40 We’ve got lots of feelings…
Ginny Mooney:
00:17:42 We got lots of feelings in the house.
Jim Kirkland:
00:17:44 As Matt said, the Mooney children are all teenagers now. And so is 99 Balloons. The ministry is going strong, helping families to be known and loved—and helping the Church to value all of God’s children.
Ginny Mooney:
00:17:56 We have about 45 Recess sites right now in different churches throughout the United States, a few in Canada, one in Australia. And so that replicable model that we made just kind of… there was a need. And there still continues to be a need.
Phil Fleischman:
00:18:09 And Matt says the “need” goes both ways. People with disabilities need the Church. And the Church needs people with disabilities. The body of Christ can’t be missing any parts.
Matt Mooney:
00:18:21 The point of everything that we do is that people with disabilities have gifts and we have to build relationships with them in order to be the recipient of their gifts. And for so long in the Church those gifts have been muted. We've celebrated the guy with the most followers and the biggest microphone, and he’s slick. And that hasn't served us real well. And so, in the Bible we see a different model that Jesus is constantly calling us back to those that the world thinks less of. Those who the world considers less, we consider more.
MUSIC TRANSITION
Phil Fleischman:
00:19:01 Matt and Ginny Mooney will always miss their son, Eliot. But their faith in Christ comes with the promise that they will be with him again one day in Heaven. The hope they have is available to you too, and there’s no better time than the Christmas season to learn about the hope of Christ. Head over to Find-Peace-with-God-dot-net to find out more. Again, the address is Find-Peace-with-God-dot-net.
Jim Kirkland:
00:19:26 You’re about to hear a word from the late Billy Graham. And then Matt will be back with a first step you can take if this episode has stirred your heart to reach out and build a new relationship with someone with disabilities.
V.O.:
00:19:38 You’re listening to GPS: God. People. Stories. A podcast production of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association.
Billy Graham:
00:19:49 That word alone. How many people feel alone? The Bible teaches something about loneliness.
V.O.:
00:19:57 Billy Graham…
Billy Graham:
00:19:58 Jesus was lonely. He knew what loneliness was because you see, only He could bear the sins of the world. That was a lonely position to be in. And when He was on the cross, it says, all the disciples forsook Him. God the Father and God the Son, a shadow came between Them. The shadow of your sins in my sins and Jesus lonely, dying, suffering, bleeding, bearing your sins, because no one else could do it but Him. Yes, there's a loneliness to sin, and until you turn away from your sins and receive Christ into your heart, that loneliness will remain. Jesus Christ looked upon lonely people and loved them and went to the cross for them. You no longer feel alone when you come to Jesus Christ as your Savior.
Jim Kirkland:
00:20:53 This time of year can be especially hard for those who have lost a loved one. Maybe you yourself are feeling lonely or isolated. Or maybe you’re struggling to find the words to pray. Know that we would like to help you, and we’re here for you. You can call our prayer line any time, day or night, and one of our faithful volunteers will pick up the phone to pray with you. The number is 8 5 5 – 2 5 5 – P R A Y. That’s 8 5 5 – 2 5 5 – P R A Y.
Phil Fleischman:
00:21:22 You’ve been hearing from Matt and Ginny Mooney. They started the ministry 99 Balloons 15 years ago. They told us about their Recess events for children and their families, but Matt says they also have a ministry for adults called “Befriend.”
Matt Mooney:
00:21:37 The whole purpose of all that we do is that people might build relationships. So maybe it just looks like, taking a little time, making a little effort. Maybe there's a family with disability that you already kind of know but you don't know their experience. Just begin to know them. Ask them questions. Ask them what church has been like for them. Ask them what’s been frustrating for them. What are they going through? Are they doing good? You know? Just begin to build a relationship, find a person with disability, find an adult with disability in your community, and begin to walk the road of figuring out what it would be like to have a relationship with them. That is a very simple thing, and that is the most profound thing you could do.
Phil Fleischman:
00:22:17 You can learn more about starting a “Befriend” outreach and the rest of the Mooneys’ ministry by going to 99 Balloons-dot-org. That’s the number 99, balloons-dot-org.
Jim Kirkland:
00:22:28 We thank Matt and Ginny for taking the time to share their story with us. And we will be praying for them as they navigate their childrens’ teenage years. This has been the last episode of our series entitled “More Than Our Abilities.” It’s been a series on special needs and the Church. We hope you see that we, as God’s people, are so much “More Than Our Abilities”. I’m Jim Kirkland.
Phil Fleischman:
00:22:51 And I’m Phil Fleischman. This is GPS. God. People. Stories. It’s an outreach of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association – Always Good News.
CLOSING MUSIC
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