23-Year-Old Single Woman Adopts 13 Kids to Devote Her Life to Them, Births Her Own Baby Soon After
Four years ago, Katie Davis was homecoming queen at her high school in Brentwood, Tenn. She had a yellow convertible and planned to study nursing in college.
While in Uganda, Davis experienced their culture. When she returned to Brentwood, she told her parents that she would sacrifice her university studies and would return to Uganda for a year to work as a missionary providing education for the people.
But those plans changed just a little.
Today, she’s in Uganda, sharing her home with 13 orphaned or abandoned girls, ages 2 to 15. Davis is the legal guardian or foster mother for all of them, and hopes to one day adopt them.
She started teaching kindergarten at an orphanage in a small village near the town of Jinja. A stormy night, a mud house fall about three children whose parents died of AIDS. While being treated at the hospital, one of the girls, Agnes, asked Davis if she could come live with her, and the 18-year-old accepted.
Davis then rented an apartment to house three girls, and within a short time ten more girls moved in, including a little girl named Patricia, who was taken in by her mother, who had AIDS. , donated to Davis.
To fulfill her promise to her parents, Davis briefly returned to the United States in 2018 and enrolled in nursing college, but she eventually dropped out and transferred back because she missed the girls.
Also, Davis couldn’t send all the girls away because she knew they had nowhere else to go, so she decided to take them all.
One of the challenges Davis faces as a mother of 13 girls is getting them all to the breakfast table, which she explains is her day job.
Davis is well-known in Jinja, where she drives her family around town in a 13-passenger minivan. She can apply to formally adopt the girls after serving as their caregiver for three years.
But not everyone supports her.
She is also too young to adopt because under Ugandan law the adoptive parents must be at least 25 years old or older the adopted child is at least 21 years old.
In addition, Child Welfare Officer Caroline Bankusha objected to Davis adopting and caring for too many children unless those children were placed under a ministry or children’s home.
However, it is explained that she can overcome all adoption issues if the Judge determines that staying with her is in the best interest of the girls. As for the children, however, they believe that staying with Davis is in the best interest of them. One of the girls, Prissy, spea
Talking about her decision, Davis explained that when she started adopting these children and teaching them the word of God, she had no idea how much she would feel love for them.
She didn’t know they would become an extension of her, and she would feel what they felt. Davis explains that when her children get hurt, it hurts her too. She feels it too when they’re happy.
The 13-year-old mother explained that she has come to understand what true love is and what it means to live through care and adoption.
Launching A Nonprofit
Davis has also started a nonprofit organization called Amazima Ministries. With support from U.S. donors, Amazima helps 400 children go to school, provides community health programs and feeds more than a thousand children five days a week. Davis is the director, and the job supports her and her family.
ENDING AND HAVING A BABY
Davis and Benji Majors met when they both went to Uganda to serve on missions. Although they both grew up close together in Franklin, Tennessee, they first met in Uganda.
The couple exchanged their marriage vows in 2015 and although none of Davis’ sisters were present, she has 13 daughters of her own. Not long after the marriage, the family grew once again as they welcomed their biological child, son Noah.
Source:
npr.org, ustimetoday.com
