First, happy 6 month birthday to our sweet niece, Arabella… daughter of my little sister Mary-Beth and her husband Aaron. She’s about as cute as she can be, and you can follow them and see for yourself at the Rose Family Cues blog.

Sorry for the delay on Baby Isaiah updates! We’ve been gearing up for one of the most amazing weeks of the years, the Masters! It’s now here, and we’re in Augusta enjoying the fabulousness of it all.

Paul and I have been talking a lot about Isaiah this week as this is the first time many of the players, caddies, staff, etc. have had an opportunity to meet him since he was born. It’s been a true blessing to share his story and to be telling about how amazing God has been to us throughout this journey. Most have seen the article that Helen Ross wrote for PGATOUR.com (if you missed it, you can read it here) and were so moved by her incredible writing that they wanted to reach out and share how moved they were. Others have just been waiting to see him, especially our friends who didn’t play Tampa.

One of the most exciting moments this week was seeing Isaiah with our dear friends Bubba and Angie Watson, their son Caleb, and their caddie and our sweet friend Ted Scott. Here are some photos of our week so far…

One of the things we’ve been asked a lot this week is how we’ve coped – are we adjusting? What’s so interesting is that we never felt like we needed to adjust. And today, Paul and I were talking this over after we chatted with our friend Tim Rosaforte from the Golf Channel who was so great in supporting our family during Isaiah’s challenging birth and subsequent testing. We talked about how God asked us to walk this journey. How we’re called to walk it in faith. How we’re called to give our testimony about what God has done in our lives. And we talked about how we’ve never asked “why us?” or “are we being punished for something?” It’s a question people have asked us a lot – how are we not angry or frustrated about Isaiah’s challenges? It’s an honest question. While we’ve not (yet?) experienced those feelings of anger, we respect the question and appreciate that people feel comfortable enough to ask.

And Paul was reminded of this verse…

Let’s set the stage a little bit. Jesus is in Jerusalem with this disciples. The scripture picks it up in John 9:1-2.

The disciples’ question was a request that shows the disciples were treating the man’s blindness as a theological problem. We still do this today, don’t we? Many of us assume that disease, disorders, death or loss are in some way due to sin. But watch what Jesus does… Jesus shifts the focus, and instead of addressing the cause of the man’s blindness he, instead, addresses its purpose: so that the work of God might be displayed in his life (verse 3).

So often we are concerned with assigning blame. Trying to figure out the source of suffering, rather than the purpose. Most often we don’t know the purpose until God reveals it to us at a later time. That requires patience. THAT requires FAITH.

For us, Isaiah’s journey and the journey we’ve been asked by God to walk with him is an opportunity to reveal God’s works, thus revealing something of God himself and His purposes on earth. Our journey, Isaiah’s journey, is just one of millions and millions of journeys through which the works of God are displayed.

Now that we’ve shared that with you, we wanted to give you an update on God’s little work on display! Isaiah is doing incredibly well. At his 3 month check up, he weighed in at 11.1 lbs (yeah… we know!!!) and a little over 23″ long. On his super special Ds growth chart, he’s in the 75th percentile in both categories. He is super advanced, well beyond his age, developmentally in areas like rolling over, motor skills, etc. It’s truly a miracle. His little muscles, which began at birth in the “low tone” category, are thriving. He’s starting to pull himself up and hold his head really steady, even moreso than he had been doing previously. He laughs… oh my gosh does he laugh. He’s got the sweetest demeanor EVER. He is such a happy baby. He’s got the most adorable lower lip pout – it’s normally his little warning that he’s not happy about something. Rarely does he follow that with a whimper, but that’s his last resort. Typically we respond to the adorable lower lip droop/quiver, so rarely does he have to resort to noise. He loves to be around people. He loves his puppy. He LOVES to snuggle. He’s just an incredible little boy.

He’s in therapy several times a month. His therapists are really encouraged by his advancement. They give us tricks and tips each time we see them to keep him moving well in advance of his age. We are so thrilled with his progress but we’re not so silly as to think that he’ll always be ahead of the game. We’ll enjoy these victories and we’ll embrace the challenges. Because we KNOW God’s works are being displayed through Isaiah’s life.

So, what else are we up to? Well, we’re about to launch a new program to support new moms at Wolfson Children’s Hospital. That’s super exciting for us and we’ll share all the details when we can. We’re still feeding the staff at Wolfson NICU each week, and we’d love for you to join us. You can sign up HERE… participation is super easy. Sign up for one of the available days and bring whatever you’d like to the approximate 30 staff members saving babies in the NICU at Wolfson. It can be as simple as bringing by some homemade cookies or dropping off some bags of candy. It can be as elaborate as you choose – our friend Lauren Teague made homemade lasagna for the entire staff last week! It’s a great opportunity for you to get involved.

We have a 5K Fun Run/Walk coming up this summer. Originally scheduled for June 7, we may look to move the date back a bit due to a new conflict in Jacksonville that day (the US Men’s Soccer team is in town!!), but we’ll keep you posted on that. You won’t have to be in the Jacksonville area to participate – you can find someone who is participating and support their efforts while you walk/jog the same day as us in your hometown! Super fun way to join us and support our new programs at Wolfson.

We’re also supporting some worldwide initiatives of the International Down Syndrome Coalition, who have been great supporters of our family on our journey. We’re just thrilled to have been embraced by so many wonderful people in the Ds family.

We are praying for all of you, our Team Isaiah faithful followers! We are so thankful for your prayers for our sweet little boy. Please know that we are still reading every single bit of correspondence and we reply to EVERY SINGLE ONE. It may take us a few days, but we have made it a priority to personally reply.

If you have specific ways we can pray for you or for someone you know and love, please don’t forget to submit your prayer request by filling out the form here.

Have a blessed evening, and HAPPY MASTERS WEEK!