Pretty Like Me

from First Connections 2023 Winter

by First United Methodist Church Richardson

Our Love Speaks

pretty like me by Kacie Rendon

A miracle is defined as a “surprising and welcome event that is not explicable by natural or scientific laws and is therefore considered to be the work of a divine agency.” For the majority of my life, I always assumed that miracles happened to other people and other families. However, for the past two years my family has been granted more miracles than I could have ever imagined.

In 2021, my husband, Mark, and I found out we were expecting our second daughter. Despite a very high risk pregnancy and our doctors informing us that our baby might not survive, we miraculously welcomed Josie Hope Rendon into the world. Josie was born with Down syndrome, weighed under 3 pounds, had several large heart defects, and had ongoing lung disease. We loved her immediately, but did not know if we would have much time with her. We nearly lost her on multiple occasions. We had to make difficult decisions regarding her health, including open heart surgery and a tracheostomy placement, in hopes that one day she would be well enough to finally come home. Our family endured being separated for months and months. This was especially taxing on our older daughter, Eleanor. Words will never be sufficient to describe how difficult that time was for our family. We were finally able to bring Josie home after over 250 days in the hospital.

We would not have made it through this incredibly difficult time without the love, time, and support of our family, friends, and church community at FUMCR. Visits and phone calls from the pastors and staff helped us maintain our faith when hope seemed lost. Our Sunday school class, family, and friends provided meals, gift cards, encouragement, and childcare for Eleanor while Josie was in the hospital. Even once Josie finally came home from the hospital, FUMCR continued to bless our family. Our initial and long-awaited homecoming in May 2022 was greeted with balloons and banners. Most recently, this Christmas, Josie and Eleanor were afforded the experience of seeing Santa Claus together when an FUMCR staff member dressed in his Santa suit and came to our home. And, above all else, we attribute the privilege of modern day medicine and the countless prayers being lifted over Josie and her life for the reason she is home in our arms today.

Our family was given the gift of an individual with Down syndrome even before Josie was born. Mark’s Aunt Loy is a kind and loving 57-year-old woman who also happens to have Down syndrome. Aunt Loy came to see Josie in the hospital shortly after she had her tracheostomy placement. In a world where most would be frightened to hold a baby so fragile, Aunt Loy held Josie with pride and adoration and exclaimed, “Pretty like me!”

Inspired by Aunt Loy, Josie, and others with Down syndrome, we used her sweet expression to start a bakery out of our home called Pretty Like Me Bake Shop. Our mission is to bring hope and kindness to the world, one cookie at a time. At Thanksgiving, we sold cookies to raise money for a local organization called Hope Story whose mission is to change the narrative on raising a child with Down syndrome. And at Christmastime, we sold hundreds of cookies to donate pacifiers and gift cards to babies and families in the cardiac

ICU at Children’s Medical Center Dallas, the very unit that saved Josie’s life. What a merciful God we have who brings beauty from the ashes. “Provide for those who grieve in Zion – to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of joy, instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair. They will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the Lord for the display of his splendor.” Isaiah 61:3

Josie continues on her journey to health, and she is getting stronger every day. By all statistics, odds, and predictions, Josie should not have survived. And yet, she did. Time and time again she has miraculously survived what most would say were unsurvivable circumstances. Fortunately, we believe in a God who doesn’t need the odds in his favor to make the impossible possible. God is loving, merciful, and above all else faithful!