Brenda

In 1997, after surviving a devastating, disfiguring accident, a six-year-old waif from Honduras was brought to Madison, Wisconsin, where University Hospital’s world-class reconstructive surgeons took her into their care. In this true story, her mother tells how the adventurous and resilient young Brenda immediately embraced seven complete strangers, adopting them as her foster family with hardly a backward glance. As an expected one-year stay turned into two years, then three, and then forever, Brenda submitted to more than fifty surgeries, facing each one with courage and good humor. She endured hundreds of therapy sessions, unimaginable pain, setbacks, and complications. But she kept a curious, friendly, indomitable, and forgiving spirit—never pitying herself or becoming bitter, angry, or entitled. As hundreds of medical professionals cared for her over the years, she also ministered to them in profound and inspiring ways. The experiences recounted in this book are extraordinary, not only because of Brenda’s unusual childhood, but because she herself is not, and never has been, ordinary.