In the Nov. 8 “Practicing Catholic” show, Jeff Reither, the director of parish and family life at St. Anne in Hamel, told the story of his family’s emotional journey after the death of their son, Joshua, as a stillbirth.
In the show airing at 9 p.m. Nov. 15 on Relevant Radio 1330 AM, Reither said faith gave him and his family hope.
Reither told “Practicing Catholic” host Patrick Conley, “Our seventh child (Isaiah) was born in December of ‘09 and was born healthy, so we thought. That just started us down a process of six years of being with Isaiah and learning a lot about life and about faith.”
Shortly after his birth, Isaiah’s oxygen level dipped down and caused concern for the family. Reither said medical tests indicated that Isaiah had Down syndrome.
“They came in and told her (Jeff’s wife, Laura) this news and this will tell you the faith that my wife has,” Reither said. “All these people came in and they said to her, ‘We got bad news.’ They said, ‘Well, we did some testing on Isaiah, and he tested positive for Down syndrome.’ And my wife without hesitation said, ‘That’s not bad news. That’s just news.’ That changed everything, I think, within that room. Then it changed, moving forward, our whole philosophy or our whole thought on all of this.”
Reither said that after the death of Joshua the family always prayed for him with the five kids that followed. Together, the Reithers prayed for their new son Isaiah.
“We had always prayed for Joshua,” Reither said. “We always had this understanding of (the) communion of saints. … Once Isaiah came into the picture, knowing that there’s going to be a lot of hardships and knowing the value of prayer, we just went to prayer with our kids. We were very honest with them.”
After Isaiah’s birth, the Reithers received troubling news that Isaiah had a heart condition and required surgery with a near zero chance of survival.
“It’s a three-surgery process over three years and it’s never been successful with somebody with Down syndrome,” Reither said. “So, we decided with the guidance of our priest to bring him (Isaiah) home and to just love him up. … Then there was a surgeon that wasn’t there who came in and said later on, ‘No, we think that we can do surgery with a high chance of survival.’ We decided to go that route.”
Still, the Reithers asked the priest to come into the NICU (neonatal intensive care unit) with the whole Reither family. There they did the baptism and confirmation for Isaiah.
“It was a beautiful witness to everybody around there just to have the priest come into the NICU,” Reither said. “If you ever spend time in the NICU, the will to live by these babies and to see this, to see all these little creatures of God, these beautiful, beautiful humans, and all hooked up with everything and all they want to do is live. That’s all they want to do is survive.”
In the first year of Isaiah’s life, he had one minor and one major surgery. Over the next six years of his life, Isaiah had five or six open heart surgeries, Reither said, and was admitted to the hospital over 50 times, ranging from two days to 75 days.
“If you ever had an experience with kids with Down’s, it’s a precondition to love unconditionally. He just loved everybody. He brought people to prayer. It was a beautiful life. … I’m a big believer that you get the graces to deal with things when you need them. You get the graces to deal with the here and now.”
Reither’s son Isaiah died in February of 2016. Reither said he passed away peacefully in a children’s hospital.
To hear more about the Reithers’ journey in faith with their son, Isaiah, tune into “Practicing Catholic,” which repeats at 1 p.m. Nov. 16 and 2 p.m. Nov. 17.?????????????
The program also includes a discussion with Jenni and Jeff Fuchs, entrepreneurs, on how their family built media businesses focused on inspiring others to deepen their relationships with God. Also, Bishop Michael Izen explains how purgatory can be a necessary step after death.??? ????????
Produced by Relevant Radio and the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, the program can also be heard after it has aired at archspm.org/faith-and-discipleship/practicing-catholic or choose a streaming platform at Spotify for Podcasters.???
