A story unfinished (Beacon Hill Press)

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I read A Story Unfinished: 99 Days with Eliot, in exchange for honest review from Beacon Hill Press. The story was written by Matt Mooney. I received a paperback version of the book. This book is also based from a Christian Perspective.

Mooney and his wife had a son, who lived only 99 days. I wanted to read the book because the description touched me deeply. I had two miscarriages before: The second miscarriage hurt me the most. I also thought about Kalen, when I read the book. Kalen has a global development delay and a heart condition.

The book starts out with a beautiful introduction. Mooney's wife, Ginny, finds out at 30 weeks, Eliot has a genetic disease and birth was not possible. The Mooney's knew if Eliot lived, his future was uncertain. This was a lot to take before Eliot was born.

The book was hard to read at times, but it was also a good read. Mooney discussed the fears of being a first time father, while being enrolled in law school at the same time. He discussed the challenges of being a husband, while moving from job to job, not to mention serving in ministry at church. One of the funniest passages was when Mooney discussed buying a 3-pack pregnancy test to ensure Ginny was really pregnant (pp. 17 to 18).

Then, the book starts to discuss the pregnancy by weeks. On page 49, we reach 30 weeks. Ginny and Matt have an appointment for a 3rd ultrasound. The passages was hard to read. The Mooneys learned their unborn child had a hole in his heart; enlarged kidneys; clinched fists. The Mooneys were going to have a special needs child, who would need open heart surgery. The genetic disease was called Trisomy 18 or Edwards Syndrome, in which a child had 3 chromosomes, instead of two.

Next, Mooney added his blog posts from before Eliot's birth to his one month birthday. That was the best part of the book, tracking the progress of the family. I also loved the family photos, which started after page 96. Eliot died on October 27, 2006. The family released 99 balloons in the air, one for each day of Eliot's life.