Katie Davis was only 18 years old when she decided that would permanently alter the course of her life. The Tennessee-born adolescent was in her final year of high school, class president, and preparing to be her high school’s homecoming queen when she surprised everyone with her plan.
Katie drove a yellow convertible vehicle with intentions to attend nursing school in 2008, until she opted to take a trip to Uganda before returning to college.
When she returned from Uganda to her family in Brentwood, she informed them that she would not be attending college and would instead travel to Uganda to serve as a missionary committed to bringing education to the people.
She returned to Uganda to begin her missionary work, promising herself that she would eventually obtain the nursing degree she desired.
She began teaching kindergarten in an orphanage, but one night after a thunderstorm, a mud hut fell on three AIDS-infected children. While in the hospital, one of the children, Agnes, 9, begged Katie if she could come live with her, and the 18-year-old agreed.
Katie had gone from 18-year-old homecoming queen to mother to 13 orphaned or abandoned daughters ranging in age from 2 to 15. Davis had received the youngest kid from an HIV-positive 12-year-old mother.
Kate remarked her initial thought wasn’t, ‘Oh, a baby, let me adopt it!’ Because, in the best-case scenario, she believes babies are raised in Uganda by Ugandans. But, realizing that there is nowhere else for them to go, she does not think she is capable of sending them away.
Katie momentarily went to the United States to fulfill her commitment to her parents and enrolled in nursing school, but she missed her girls so much that she dropped out and moved back to Uganda.
Katie wanted to adopt the girls but was advised that adoption would not be considered under Ugandan law until she was 25 years old.
Because of how effectively she cares for the girls, she was designated as the court-assigned caretaker for all of them. Her children believe that staying with Katie is in their best interests.
“I feel like she’s truly my mother since she shows me love, and I feel like, sure, this is my mother,” said Prissy, one of the kids.
Katie stated that her objective when she first began out was to educate these girls the word of God, but she had no clue how much love she would feel for them and the desire to become their mother.
Katie remarked in an interview more than a decade ago that she believes that’s clearly something she was created for. Katie has since founded Amazima Ministries International, which has assisted in the establishment of two schools as well as other services such as medical and vocational outreach, as well as sponsorship and scholarship programs targeted at assisting Ugandan families in remaining together.
Katie married Benji Davis in 2015, and the couple now lives in Uganda with their biological boy and 13 Ugandan kids. They met when Benji arrived in Uganda to serve as a missionary, and despite growing up not far apart in Tennessee, they met for the first time in Uganda.
Kisses from Katie: A Story of Relentless Love and Redemption and Daring to Hope: Finding God’s Goodness in the Broken and the Beautiful are two of her memoirs that have become New York Times bestsellers.
The mother of 17 stated that the people of Uganda have become like family to her, and that anything she is doing there can be replicated anywhere. “You don’t have to be in Uganda to be a missionary,” she remarked. “You don’t have to adopt 13 children to be Jesus’ hands and feet.”
Katie’s story is extraordinary, and because of her, so many kids now have the steadiness and bright future that all kids deserve.
