Kisses From Katie

I first heard about a girl named Katie Davis when I was on a volunteer trip last summer. All I knew was that she wrote a book called Kisses From Katie and a lot of the people I was with there were really into it. A couple months later I came across Amazima Ministries Promotional video and half way through watching it I realized they were talking about the same Katie Davis girl! Katie Davis was a regular high school student with big dreams and goals, she was the honor role, student president, prom queen type of student. In her last years of high school, before she decided what she was going to do the year after she went on a short term mission trip to Uganda. Many people would say after trips like that "it changed my life," but for Katie Davis it actually did. Katie decided that after high school she would take a year off and go teach kindergarten at the school and home Amazima Ministries provides for orphaned children. That year long commitment drastically changed her life, as she decided to permanently stay in Uganda, and become a mother to 14 little girls. I think this story is so inspiring because Katie saw people that needed help and decided that she would be the person willing to give it. Everything and everyone in society gave Katie a million excuses as to why she couldn't do this; she was too young to be a mother, she couldn't handle the responsibility, she needed to go to university, she should return to her "real" life but Katie ignored all of it a just followed what she believed to be right. I’m sure the 14 little girls who call her mom are glad that Katie defied the "norms" and chose to stay. Katie might not be able to give her daughters all the material stuff the we often mistake for being part of a "good parent," however she has given these girls the oppertuinity to feel cared for, loved and part of a family.  She could've gone back to her comfortable life in the states, gone to university and settled down, which is what everyone around her was telling her to do but Katie did not let the unknown hold her back. Katie may have gone with the intentions changing this village for the better however I think she would agree that these children and people have completely changed her in the proccess. Katie Davis's book is called Kisses From Katie and she talks about her life and experiences as a mom, missionary and director. Of course there are always critics when it comes to stories like this, but the way I see it is, she is just trying to help these kids and make a positive change, no matter what your view is on anything else, I think it is evident that she really loves what she does.