02 Jul Heart the Houses

For Jace and Kate McIntyre of Macks Creek, MO, the first year of marriage was meant to be a season of firsts. Instead, it became a whirlwind no young couple could have imagined.

While traveling to Oklahoma for a family funeral, Kate went into premature labor—28 weeks pregnant and seven hours from home. In the early morning hours, their first baby, Cru Alan, arrived in Durant, Oklahoma, weighing just 3 pounds, 1 ounce. Within hours, he was flown to the NICU at a children’s hospital in Dallas.

Then, just months later, it happened again. The McIntyres brought Cru home to Missouri in late October. By March, Kate was back in the hospital, in labor at 27 weeks with baby June. After six days of bed rest, June Lee arrived at 28 weeks on March 16, 2025, in Springfield—3 pounds, 2 ounces, and every bit her brother’s match. This time, a second Ronald McDonald House was waiting, right across the street from the NICU.

Because the Springfield House sat just steps from the hospital, the McIntyres never had to choose between their two children. A lifelong family friend on staff, Randell, welcomed them like his own—and his wife, Clara, watched Cru so Jace and Kate could sit with June. Staff played with the kids, allowing the parents to eat a warm meal. Volunteers cooked dinners made just for them.

And the milestones came anyway. Cru said his very first word—“Dada”—in his baby sister’s NICU room. Every good update was met with a celebration down the hall. In the most fragile chapter of their lives, the House gave them room to be a family: to cook together, laugh together, and treasure the ordinary moments most parents take for granted. Love and laughter, it turned out, could live right alongside the fear.

Everyone who visited asked the McIntyres the same question: how are you both so calm? They couldn’t fully explain it. They spoke of “a peace that surpasses all understanding,” of taking things “one day at a time,” of being carried by their church, their family, and the countless prayers, cards, and letters that arrived when they needed them most.

But they never hesitated to name a huge part of that peace. With the Ronald McDonald House covering the roof over their heads and the meals on their table, they were free to pour everything they had into their children.