99 Balloons | Celebrating Eliot's life
Tuesday, January 19, 2010 at 12:00PM 
Proud parents Matt and Ginny couldn't have been excited about the arrival of their first child, Eliot, on July 20, 2006. Before Eliot was born, Matt and Ginny knew their precious baby had Trisomy 18. They knew that every day with Eliot was a gift.
Trisomy 18 syndrome, the second most common Trisomy after Down Syndrome, is due to the presence of an extra #18 chromosome, meaning that the child has three chromosomes in the eighteenth position instead of the normal two. It occurs in about 1:5000 to 1:8000 births.
Unlike Down syndrome, Trisomy 18 is usually fatal, with most of the babies dying before birth and those who do make it to birth typically living only a few days. However, a small number of babies (<10%) live at least one year.
An underdeveloped lung. A heart with a hole in it. And DNA that placed faulty information into each and every cell of Eliot’s body - could not stop the living God from screaming of Himself through a child who never uttered a word.
(excerpted from Eternal Perspective Ministries)