Alright, so here it is…the big one, the announcement – that thing I referred to as GINORMOUS about three weeks ago. The long-awaited, much-anticipated, breathtaking…ok, wait a minute…I’m taking this a bit too far. Actually, it’s not that big of a deal to about 99.9% of the world, but it certainly is to our little pack of crazies here in the Jones house!
Judging by the many, many comments we have received from lots of different people over the last year-plus, you may have already guessed what the big announcement is – we are going to be on TV…again. But this time, it’s not the nightly news that will narrate our story. Rather, it is a local production company behind the cameras and this time we will be taking this tour nationwide! Unfortunately, I cannot be too forthcoming with the details yet, but I’ll tell you all I can (I can’t even say what network is carrying it!).
The production guys (I can’t mention their name, either) found out about us from the Statesman article that hit the papers about a week before the babies were born. They tracked us down through the website, met with me in the hospital cafeteria to explain their background and vision for the show, interviewed us in Casey’s post-partem room, and accompanied us to the NICU the first time Casey held one of the babies. They have followed us on date nights and they went with us to the park; they were at the babies’ dedication to the church, they joined us at the Thanksgiving table, and they were in the operating room last week as Casey had her surgery. And they have been with us at all points in between.
So they put together a little clip which was sent out to several networks in June and while many expressed interest, only one committed. And after nearly six months of negotiations between the producers and the network, the deal has finally been inked! There will be one show, at least, I guess technically it is called a pilot. It will be one hour, though they are currently discussing turning it into a two hour show (which would be really, really awesome) and it will air some time in the spring (yes, I know a more precise date, but I cannot say what that date is)! If the show does well (hint, hint – tell everyone you ever thought of knowing to watch it!!), we will do a second or third show and if those do well, there is a possibility that the network will commit to a series. Again, that would be really, really awesome!
We have made it no secret that we believe it is our responsibility as Christians to share our story with as many people as care to listen. We told you about our attempts to get “A Baby Story” to do a show on the birth. And we have made our lives as public as possible in pursuit of our goal of “letting our light shine” for all to see the power of Christ in the world today. So while this announcement we are making today may not come as much of a surprise, I imagine that it is being met with some level of disappointment and disagreement by some folks out there who are not pleased by our decision to do a TV show. How can you exploit these babies? Is the money and recognition really worth it? How can you betray their privacy? Aren’t you taking this a bit far? Etcetera, etcetera…we have actually heard much of this already. So allow me to address this briefly…
This is a decision that we made prayerfully and after much discussion with our family and other Christian friends and mentors. If we had ever received a hint that this was not the direction we should go, we would have stopped everything immediately. We never received that hint. It is our intent to continue along with this process in this exact same way and we ask for your prayers along these same lines. As each new opportunity and challenge presents itself, we will need the clarity that only our faith can provide as to how to proceed and we believe the prayers of our friends and family will be critical to receiving that clarity.
Obviously, if we felt as though this were some sort of exploitation of our babies, we would not be doing this. The babies and Eliot are not asked to do anything other than what other kids and babies do – the only difference being that there is a camera capturing their activities. Believe me, we do not withhold bottles from them to create ratings-grabbing drama! And the money? Well, it has not come and likely will not come unless it goes to a series which is not highly likely. The income we will earn from the pilot is insignificant to say the least. In other words, the money, if it comes it will help, but it has never been part of our discussions with the producers and is not at all why we are doing this.
It boils down to this – we believe that this is a blessing that we have been given. And as most blessings tend to be accompanied by much responsibility, this one is no different…we happen to know a thing or two about that whole blessing/responsibility combo! We are taking it one step at a time and doing everything we can along the way to allow God’s hand to do the heavy lifting through this experience! Let me put it to you in another way…
I found out back in August that the JonesLife site had received 45,000 unique visitors since its launch less than one year prior. 45,000 people from all over the world chose to log onto our little website and check in on the tales of our family’s population boom…45,000 people!! What they got when they logged in was not just a few cute pictures and some funny stories about baby poop. No, we believe they got plenty of pictures and poop stories, but that they also got much more than that – a story of faith and of love and of a family holding onto both as they encounter the greatest challenge they have ever faced. And I believe this is why our site has grown as it has. We started the website and went public with our story to allow God’s light to shine through this experience in the hopes that his work in our lives would impact others in a positive way. We never imagined that 10,000 let alone 45,000 people would be touched by this…and that is what we get for underestimating the Big Man!
The company producing the show for our family averages 1.2 million viewers on the shows they produce. I’m sorry to keep repeating myself, but here I go again…1.2 MILLION people!! It is mind-boggling to think that by the time the Fab Five reaches their second birthday it is wholly possible that their story will have impacted over 1,000,000 lives. And what those 1,000,000+ people will get when they tune in is that same story of faith and of love that has defined our lives and promises to define yours as well if you allow it to do so.
When you look at it in this light, we did not see how we could say anything other than this…It’s Showtime!!
