Excerpt from Kisses from Katie:

“What would cause an eighteen-year-old senior class president and homecoming queen from Nashville, Tennessee, to disobey and disappoint her parents by forgoing college, break her little brother’s heart, lose all but a handful of her friends (because they think she has gone off the deep end), and break up with the love of her life, all so she could move to Uganda, where she knew only one person and didn’t even speak the language?

Katie Davis left over Christmas  break of her senior year for a short mission trip to Uganda and her life was turned completely inside out. She found herself so moved by the people of Uganda and the needs she saw that she knew her calling was to return and care for them.”

Kisses from Katie is a beautiful story of a young lady who has opened her heart to what God has called her to do, sacrificing an easy life in the United States for a challenging journey in Uganda. Now at twenty-two years old, Katie is in the process of adoping thirteen little  girls – orphans – who might never know love otherwise. Katie is also the founder and director of Amazima, a ministry that reaches hundreds of other children in Uganda.

Katie says, “Sometimes I want to spend hours talking with my best friends about boys and fashion and school and life. I want to be a normal young woman living in America, sometimes. But I want other things more. All the time. I wanted to be challenged endlessly. I want to be taught by those I teach, and I want to share God’s love with people who otherwise might not know it. I want to make some kind of difference, no matter how small, and I want to follow the calling God has placed on my heart.”

We may not be called to care for orphans in a foreign country as Katie has been, but as stepparents, we are called to love and care for someone else’s children on what is often a challenging journey.

We may long for an easy road without challenges and unanswered questions. We may prefer a life with biological children who love and obey us. But as stepparents, that’s not the calling we’ve been given.

As Katie, I want to make a difference in my stepchildren’s lives. I want to love them and show them a God they may never know otherwise. I want to be a part of nurturing and maturing them.

But I’ve learned the road to growth has bumps and twists. It’s on the hard days when I don’t feel like loving my stepchildren that I can make the biggest difference in their lives. When I love them them when they’re unlovable, they know I care. When I sacrifice my schedule to meet their needs, they know they’re important to me. And when I persevere when I want to quit, they sense my unending love for them.

At twenty-two years old Katie recognizes that life’s priceless rewards come through sweat, tears, and sacrifices. Not on the easy comfortable road we would like to journey on, but on the road God has called us to. And the beauty of our calling is the satisfaction we gain in knowing we’re doing the right thing, serving others in a way that makes a difference in their lives, even when it’s hard.

Are you up for the calling?

How do you show your stepchildren you love them? Will you share your ideas with us?

Other Posts You Might Like:

Nuggets of Wisdom From Laura Petherbridge: Author of The Smart Stepmom

God is Enough for the Stepfamily Struggle You Face

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