23-Year-Old Single Woman Adopts 13 Kids to Devote Her Life to Them, Births Her Own Baby Soon After

Katie Davis was just 18 years old and still in high school when she went on a mission trip to Uganda. The teenager shocked everyone when she decided to stay back and forgo University.

In 2008, during her senior year of high school, 18-year-old Katie Davis was her high school homecoming queen and senior class president when she went to Uganda on a mission trip.

While in Uganda, Davis experienced their culture. When she returned to Brentwood, she told her parents she would be sacrificing college and would return to Uganda for a year to work as a missionary dedicated to providing education to the people.

One night during a rainstorm, a mud house collapsed on three small kids whose parents had 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.

Afterward, Davis rented an apartment to house the three girls, and within a short period, ten more girls moved in, including a little girl called Patricia, who was given to Davis by her mother, who was suffering from AIDS.

To fulfill her promise to her parents, Davis briefly returned to the United States in 2018 and enrolled in the nursing college, but she eventually dropped out and moved back because she missed the girls.

Also, Davis could not send all the girls away because she knew they had nowhere else to go, so she decided to adopt all of them.

CHALLENGES FACED

One of the challenges Davis faced mothering 13 girls was getting them all to sit down at the breakfast table, which she explained was a daily task.

Also, their house is not always as clean as she would like it to be, and the kids sometimes get late to school because she had mistakenly burned their toast.

She was also too young to adopt because, according to Ugandan law, an adoptive parent must at least be 25 years old or at least 21 years older than the child being adopted.

Also, Child Welfare Officer Caroline Bankusha was against Davis adopting and taking care of so many children unless the kids were placed under a ministry or children's home.

It was, however, explained that she could overcome all the adoption issues if the Judge determined that staying with her was the best thing for the girls. On the kids' part, however, they believe staying with Davis is the best thing for them. One of the girls, Prissy, said:

"I feel like she's really my mother because she shows me love, and I feel like, yes, this is my mom."

Speaking about her decision, Davis explained that when she started out adopting these kids and teaching them the word of God, she had no idea how much love she would feel for them.

She did not know they would become an extension of her, and she would feel what they felt. Davis explained that when her kids hurt, it also pains her deeply. The same way when they are happy, she feels it.

The mother of 13 explained that she had come to understand what true love meant and what it means to live through foster care and adoption.

GETTING MARRIED AND GIVING BIRTH

Davis and Benji Majors met when the latter arrived in Uganda to serve as a missionary. Even though they both grew up close together in Franklin, Tennessee, they met for the first time in Uganda.

The pair exchanged marital vows in 2015, and even though none of Davis's sisters was present, she had her 13 daughters with her. Not long after their marriage, the family grew once more when they welcomed their biological child, son Noah.

Afterward, she disclosed that meeting her husband and the love Majors has shown her is another way God has decided to show his immeasurable love for her and a reminder that God's blessing is on her kids.

She declared that watching them grow under the watchful eyes of their new father and hearing the joy in their voices makes her glad.

ENCOURAGING MISSIONARY WORKS

Davis disclosed that living in Uganda and sharing the news about Jesus Christ does not make her more of a missionary than people doing their missionary work outside Uganda.

The mother of 13 declared that the people of Uganda have become like family to her, and whatever she is doing there, other people can replicate elsewhere. She said:

"You don't have to be in Uganda to be a missionary. You don't have to adopt 13 children to be the hands and feet of Jesus.

She urged that loving your neighbor, meeting someone new, and conveying the love of God are ways in which one can be impactful in their missionary work.

Davis has also launched an institution that looks to change lives and rebuild bonds through the love of Christ, which she called "Amazima Ministries." She is also the author of the book "Daring to Hope: Finding God's Goodness in the Broken and the Beautiful."