Anna Duggar offered her followers a rare glimpse at all of five of the children she shares with the reviled Josh Duggar, a man some fans feel should be forgiven.
As cute as it is to see the little ones gather around the table for dinner, Anna also revealed some information about her youngest.
As it turns out, adorable little Mason has a health condition.
“Pancakes for a Saturday brunch may seem ordinary,” Anna’s captions begin. “But today at our house it is a big deal! It is Mason’s first time to have (dairy-free) pancakes!”
Mason, she reveals, is unable to tolerate a certain group of foods.
“Yup, you may have guessed it,” Anna writes. “Lil Mason has a milk protein (aka dairy) allergy.”
“Allergies showed up at 2 weeks,” she shares. “And caused us to switch to formula while momma cut dairy and other potential allergy causing foods out of my diet.”
She then lists the foods that she cut out in order to use a guess-and-check method to eliminate other variables: “(i.e. gluten, corn, soy, eggs, nuts, chicken, & nightshade foods).”
(Look at him! Adorable!)
Anna shares that her efforts paid off.
“Thankfully,” she writes. “As we added things back into my diet we discovered Mason was only allergic to dairy,”
“And,” Anna continues. “By January he was back to 100% nursing and thriving.”
She says that he grew healthily, “reaching 20lbs at 6 months!”
“Sometimes in life,” Anna reflects. “We are faced with a mountain that seems impossible.”
Anna, being a devout Christian fundamentalist, presents this as a teaching moment within the context of her faith.
“We pray asking God to move the mountain,” she continues. “Yet God wants us to climb it!”
“Even though it is unexpected (and hard work) it is so worth it,” Anna instructs. “God’s grace is sufficient for each step of the way!”
“To have a mountain top experience,” she advises. “You must first climb the mountain!”
Pointing out that ski lifts exist is not as clever as it sounds in your head, folks.
“So friends,” Anna continued in her captions. “Whatever you’re facing today, keep doing the next right thing.”
It is unclear whether she is suggesting that God gave Mason a dairy allergy to challenge him or to challenge her, but perhaps she is simply imparting a lesson.
“Go take the next step!” Anna advises. “It’s totally worth it to keep going when you know you’re on the right track!”
That’s true enough. She does, however, have a question for her fans.
“P.S. Any tips for a good dairy-free pizza?”
Anna, of course, is no stranger to insurmountable obstacles. Not only did Josh Duggar cheat on her, it also came to light that he molested multiple very young girls, and that his family covered it up.
This would be difficult on any wife, but was especially hard for Anna, whose insular and extreme faith community teaches her that she cannot divorce her husband.
Like her sisters-in-law, Anna is denied a real life or career, and lacks even the agency to leave her widely despised husband.
So when she talks about climbing mountains in the hope that it’ll be worth it in the end, she’s probably talking about bigger challenges than a dairy allergy.
But seriously — poor little Mason.
