“In Just Cate I found the book I had been waiting for since finishing Martha Beck’s Expecting Adam. How does the entrance into the world of a child with Down syndrome change her mother’s life? What are the day-to-day challenges, the unanticipated rewards? Which relationships are lost and which are strengthened on the path to raising a child with special needs? Noelle Alix and Angela Martin, best friends forever, have written a piercingly honest, and ultimately uplifting memoir about Noelle’s daughter, Cate, a baby with Down syndrome, who grows into a loving, all-too independent, intuitive girl with a wicked sense of humor. Just Cate brims with an openness to life, to letting your family and friends lead you toward the unexpected, on a winter morning walk without any clothing." ---JENNY MINTON, author of "Early Birds: A Mother’s Story for Our Times." Just Cate opens in the delivery room with Noelle Alix, a 29-year-old finance attorney in a large New York City firm whose newborn daughter Cate is unexpectedly born with Down syndrome. On hearing the news, Noelle’s childhood friend, Angela Martin, is inspired by her quiet faith to write Noelle a heartfelt note in a baby card. This note and this child spark a transformative 12-year journey of renewed faith and friendship for both women—their second stage of growing up. With humor and heart, the coauthor friends tell a dual tale of the angst and joys of raising a child with a disability, of the power of women friendship, and of Cate’s funny and poignant early years. Readers will come to embrace the spirited child whose love for her robe, her lemons, and getting her way, comes above all else.
