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Kisses From Katie
By Annie, March 1, 2012 8:00 am
I recently read “Kisses from Katie,” by Katie Davis. On the cover it says a story of relentless love and redemption. Katie’s story is truly inspiring. It all started when she decided to move to Uganda after high school and delay her first year of college. Once there, she was willing to do anything and everything to help the people of Uganda which included taking in sick orphaned children and finding a home for them. (This is a gross paraphrase.) As she did this, she began to think about adoption, “Knowing what adoption would entail, I thought trying to accomplish it would be crazy. I found myself desperately praying that God would show me what to do. And that is when it happened.’”
As Katie began adding children to her family she wrestled with many adoption issues. She talks about building a relationship, so she could move from caregiver to Mom. She talks of wrestling with the hurt her children experienced and grieving for their loss. She talks about how each child’s “pain and trauma manifested in different ways and through different behaviors,” and she never questions whether she made the right choice. She also doesn’t say that it’s easy.
“I knew that one of God’s purposes in placing me here was to grow in me, through my children, this heart for adoption. In an effort to be real, I will tell you: It was hard…Adoption is wonderful and beautiful and the greatest blessing I have ever experienced. Adoption is also difficult and painful. Adoption is a beautiful picture of redemption. It is the Gospel in my living room. And sometimes, it’s just hard…It’s hard to have your mom be a different color than you because inevitably people are going to ask you why…It’s hard when you have to make up your birthday. It’s hard when you can’t understand the concept of being a forever family yet, because your first family wasn’t forever.”
I don’t want to give away everything Katie says because she allows herself to be transparent and tell a beautiful story, her story. The way she talks about mistakes, struggles, and questions makes you forget she started this journey at 19. Much of Katie’s story is not adoption related, but as she works through different adoption related issues in her life, she’s not afraid to share the good and the bad, the triumphs and heartbreaks.
I’ll admit that I did do a general purging of my house after I finished reading her book. I mean you can’t read these sentences and not feel a little conviction, “I put value in things. These children, having no things, put value in God.” But don’t be scared to read the book for fear of being called to Uganda; read her book because she tells a story of God is working in her life, her children’s lives, and those around her.
Themocracy