round here…

This weekend, Ginny & Anders have headed off to a women’s retreat with our church.  I am headed to pick up Hazel for a weekend together; she spent the night with her grandparents, so I could help with last night’s rEcess.  I am sure our time together will include many puzzled pleas for “mommy”, but I am glad to get some one on one time with her.  I had her heart during bed rest, and intend on using the weekend to convince her to be a daddy’s girl again.

I hinted at some exciting news last time; I’m pretty sure that is annoying, and also pretty sure that no one gives a flying flip.  Nonetheless, we really are excited to share with you the things below:

• 99 Balloons, the organization we founded, has recently expanded the vision to include an international piece.  TEAMworks Ukraine represents a new direction for us, and we are hopeful for great things ahead.  The story is a great one, and we are working on telling it, but if you’re interested, I encourage you to follow the team that left today to go there on their blog.  We will soon have a new website up for 99 Balloons that will better tell their story as well as all of what goes on with 99 Balloons.  These guys are making a difference in the lives of special needs children in Ukraine, and we are honored to be a small part of their impact.

• For quite some time, I wrestled with the idea of devoting more time toward a writing project that would tell our families’ story from our perspective.  I intentionally use the word “wrestle”, because for us there is always the two-edged sword when we share our story.  It is the single greatest honor that we know of, as well as the most difficult thing that either of us have ever done.  After a year of praying & exploration, I have dedicated some time over the last few months to writing.  I have truly enjoyed the opportunity to reflect and wade through all of what Eliot’s life has and is doing in us.  I do not know if anything, such as a book, will come from it- I have handed off that part of it to a trusted soul.  And, honestly, I have gotten to the point where that is not what it’s about.  I am thankful for a task that requires me to sit and think and remember.  This project has made it a little more difficult to blog, but writing really is teaching me quite a bit about myself.  I look forward to posting some thoughts and updates on writing, and now you know a little bit of what in the world I am talking about.

• Also, we will be toting the entire family to New York City at the end of this month for an update on the Today Show.  Yes, it will be quite an adventure to get the Mooney crew to the Big Apple!  We will be on the show on April 26th.  I’ll pass on more details as I know them.  We are hoping to highlight some of the work with 99 Balloons.  Also, Ginny & I’s 9th anniversary is April 28th, so it will be fun to be in Ginny’s favorite city for a night worth celebrating.

I always want to thank all of you who have written to let us know how you have been encouraged.  I can honestly say that I do not think any of the above would be true if you had not done so.