thanks thing
We plan to gather the rascals and jump in Big Red tomorrow for a trek to our Cajun Christmas. Merry Christmas to you and yours and in the hubbub of it all- attempt with me to remember that God with us has come. Ginny and Lena (and Ginny’s mom) are headed back from St. Louis today. They traveled that increasingly familiar route for Lena’s e.e.g. (in layman’s terms this is wires on head, reading brain activity for 24 hours). So, Gin and Lena hung out in a room for the entire day- one room. This sounds like a really, really…
6
12. 12. 12 It is as though the calendar has been set to acknowledge that this is a special day. This is our Lena’s 6th birthday. Her first in our family. She spent her last three in an orphanage- on her back in a crib. This year with Lena has been too much. I have often chosen to not write about her or what she has brought to our family because I know it is still simmering within my soul; I have seen that closed fires burn hotter while open fires can putter out. God has seared so much into…
imperfect vessels
W hen choosing which to purchase, he peruses E ach with care, being sure to neglect the ones with crack or imperfection. A ny blemish will R emove the option of acceptance; E ach shortcoming serving sufficient reason for rejection. A nd I am watching him, trying not to catch his eye, L est he think me a L urker or some shade of plain weird. B ut I am over him now; having moved on to thinking that we all cannot stop our R ating system when we go beyond the store. O ur…
our toddler christmas wish list:: a letter to the grandparents
After much cussing and discussion on Christmas’ nearness, Gin and I spent some time hashing out how we were going to do Christmas different. Everyone I know wants to Christmas to be more meaningful and less hijacked. Turning that desire into action has been another thing altogether. In order to align our thoughts and our own families, we wrote a letter to both of our parents. Now you gotta know some things before the following letter will make sense to you. Gin and I both have unbelievable parents. To say we are blessed in this department is akin to saying…
You are not beautiful:: (reflections on John 1)
In case you missed it, I have invited you to join me & a ragtag group of folks in reading through the book of John in December. We are starting Friday and reading a chapter-ish a day until December 25th. Below is the 1st in what I hope will be an ongoing dialogue. If you were always the last one picked for kickball, this is the team for you. _________________________________ Just this week my 4-year old Hazel told me how someone in her preschool class told her she was not beautiful. Now, I cannot be certain she did not make…
an invitation for december
Well, that was a nice blog-cation. I am confident you enjoyed my silence as much and probably more than I did. There was so much to blog about: elections, holidays with family and continued kiddo chaos. On at least two of those three topics, I most likely would have peeved a good portion of you; regarding the subject of family, an honest author must be careful with those who think they love him most. People start to act differently when they realize they may very well be a character in your next post- the one you plan to make available…
no such thing as baby steps
Due to my lacky blog job, it has been a while, but we made it through the 6th anniversary of Eliot’s passing. Gin & I took Lena to a couple of appointments in St Louis and were able to have some real time to talk and remember and miss him while we drove the Sube to and fro. I am headed to Minneapolis on Wednesday to man a 99 Balloons booth at a conference centered on disability. It seems that soon after the schedule will have some holes, and I am looking quite forward to that. This fall has left…
a jumbled mess of a man
I hate this next sentence. These last months have been busy. Even had Ginny’s back not gone and thrown a nuclear bomb in an already chaotic concoction- this season would still have competed quite well for the wildest one that we have known. The perfect storm concocted of cranked up work with 99 Balloons, numerous opportunities to tell stories in far flung places and a continued adjustment to life with the added rascal from Ukraine. Many of the tugs for time are actually answered prayers and fruition of things we have hoped for. But good things can overwhelm us just…
Dearest you, meet these guys.
So, October is turning out to be a peach. A full schedule of things I love- though I might love a little more if they would spread out a bit. 99 Balloons hosted 12 churches from Colorado, Texas, Arkansas & Tennessee at our rEcess training conference. It will be fun to watch where these churches go as they set out to love families within their community. I am headed to Pennsylvania at the end of this week to speak to a group of medical professionals on dealing with early infant loss and perinatal diagnosis. With that said and along with…
For the ones that don't know
Dublin was busy and beautiful, and I can say that I really do love my family more than I love to travel. But it was great, and I was honored to speak on cultivating a culture of life as well as the worth of each and every individual. I had a brief conversation this week that brought an old-friend-of-an-idea back into my mind. The blip that came upon the radar screen known as my brain was a familiar notion that everyone seems to have a plan and everyone seems to know what it is they are doing- both now &…
Matt & Ginny start the second half of season 1 with a seemingly simply question: What is a good life? An entire episode focused on the life of a man known as Bulldog– told through the eyes of his brother, Chris Wheeler. It is a journey of Chris beginning to see a person who was…
In the age of television talent shows galore, our hosts attend one that manages to flip the narrative of what a talent show is & could be. Chelsea, Jordan & Claire want to sing at the bEfriend talent show hosted by 99 Balloons, but to do so they will have to overcome their fear of…
Matthew Lyle & Ginny Mooney continue the discussion of healing and the church by delving into the lives of their friends with disability who do not want to be healed, cured or fixed. When they stumble upon an article, written by Madeleine Ryan, entitled Dear Parents: Your Child with Autism is Perfect it is though…
When the loss of a child becomes a nationwide, prayer movement to #wakeupolive what does it say about the church and its relationship to healing? to suffering? In the first part of a two-part series discussing healing & the church, Matthew Lyle Mooney along with his wife, Ginny Mooney, set out to discuss the awkward…
Summer is here. At 5, 6 and 8 we got rascals riding bikes and swimming at a skill level whereby we are not in constant stress. I told Ginny sometime some summer not long ago that I was done going to pools. With 3 that cannot swim alone, I can only act like I’m listening…
I’ve worked hard to develop a new habit of carving out Monday mornings to sit and think and pray and grasp for some semblance of sanity before I cannonball into the week that will eat my lunch if I let it. It’s a rebellious act of counter-intuition as weekends are supposed to be the very…
We’ve reached that point in these beloved Ozarks where we’re just all waiting around for the good weather. We get all four seasons here; just enough of winter to know we don’t want to move north; which we needed no help knowin’. Being bone-tired of Ole Man Winter being a hanger-on is all you’re allowed…
I often look at my backside in the mirror. I move quickly past the place that you imagined I was seeking and find the splotchy spot just above the bend of my right leg. It’s my biggest scar- remnants of days I spent riding my Honda 80 dirt bike for hours on end along the…
Check it out, Ginny & Lena are in the current edition of National Geographic. A while back, a wonderful photographer followed our family around for a few days in order to capture photos illustrative of an article on brain development…fascinating article and wonderful pictures (we think). _____________________________________ If…
Against my better judgment, Ginny convinced me last Monday to sit beside her and watch the American Music Awards. I begrudgingly complied- mainly due to the fact that I love her and if she invites me to sit close to her, I do it- every time. I’m a sucker that way, but that doesn’t mean…