Kisses from Katie

Katie says that she didn’t intend to become a mother at 19, but that’s what happened when she moved to Uganda. Although she came from an affluent family and had all the comforts of a Western life, she gave it all up to live in the poorest region of Uganda. However, she says, “Today I am living the desires of my heart and I cannot imagine being happier” (xx). She gives all praise to God for giving her this life.

Katie is living in Uganda, is 22 years old, and has adopted 14 young girls. Despite her circumstances, she believes “there is nothing very spectacular about this everyday craziness; it is just the result of following Jesus into the impossible” (1). She never intended to do these things, but she realizes that God had been preparing her for most of her life. Ever since she was 16 and told her parents that she would go on a year-long missions trip after high school instead of going to college, she has had an unwavering desire to leave behind her wealth in America and help those less fortunate than her in another country.

During her senior year of high school, on Christmas break, she and her mother went to Uganda to volunteer in an orphanage. Despite her parents’ originally not wanting her to go, they finally agreed because they realized how important it was to her, and they also thought it would satiate her desire to go on a missions trip after high school—however, the experience only fueled Katie to want to do even more. After high school, her parents support her endeavors to go to Uganda to teach kindergarten, but only on the condition that she comes back after a year to attend college. She agrees.

Immediately after stepping onto the soil of Uganda, she says God “blinded me to the filth and disease, and I saw only children hungry for love that I was eager to share with them” (7). Although the country is full of orphaned and abandoned children who are sick, malnourished, and in some instances, dying, she doesn’t see their ailments but only their need for a mother’s love.

“One Day…Saturday, September 29, 2007”

In this journal entry, Katie talks about how “working in a Third World Country makes me feel like I am emptying the ocean with an eyedropper” (13), and yet she draws her strength, hope, and courage from knowing that God is walking beside her through it all. She was recently at a wedding, and during the reception she saw a gathering of “street children” outside the gate. She went out to dance and cuddle with them, and the guests at the wedding were shocked that she would interact with what they viewed as the lowliest, dirtiest people in society. 

The chapter begins with a journal entry from October 6, 2007, which elaborates on her living conditions in the Ugandan school house: It constantly smells like human and animal waste because of the open latrines, the climate is unbearably hot, and she shares her bathroom with large rats. Most difficult of all is how dirty and sick the children are. Yet, she is adamant that these aren’t complaints—“this is me, rejoicing in the Lord” (18)—because she loves her life in Uganda, and, most importantly, she loves the children she gets the honor of helping.

When she first moves to Uganda, she describes her life as being full of contradictions. She feels at home in the beautiful land, but she also feels alone because no one speaks her language. She also must overcome mundane obstacles, like learning how to prepare a freshly caught fish or cook a pot of beans. She often thinks back to her former life in America, where she would spend $100 on clothing or shoes, but here in Uganda $100 would feed a family for months. At home, she would watch movies with friends and family after a long day, but in Uganda her only option for comfort is to turn to God.

“One Day…Tuesday, October 23, 2007”

In this journal entry, she says that despite the bad weather lately she’s thankful to be worshiping and praising God with the little children in the school. They have a love for Jesus that she’s rarely seen.  

After moving to Uganda, Katie initially has a difficult time coming to terms with the wealth she once lived in and the poverty she now sees everywhere. Growing up, she was always heartbroken by the idea that people around the world were starving, but the “people who had once been anonymous in their suffering were now my friends” (29). Thinking back, she feels horrified by the opulent wealth of the West and how so many people ignore the needs of the poorest in the world. Now that she’s in Uganda, she realizes that if Americans would share just a little of what they have, many of the greatest needs in Uganda—such as more HIV medicine, more food, and more educational resources—could be fulfilled. She also sees helping the poor as part of God’s expectation for us.

These revelations empower her to do something. For many Ugandan families, sending just one child to school costs almost as much as the parents can earn in a year, but for Americans, it’s a very little amount of money—less than $50. She believes that education is the key to helping the poorest Ugandans to break the cycle of poverty. When she learns that a Ugandan father lost his job and can no longer afford to send his daughters to school, she uses her own savings to pay their school fees and buy them uniforms and supplies. Seeing the happiness and pride this gives the father, she knows that she must find a way to help other families in similar situations. She decides to find people in America who will pay to sponsor a child’s education in Uganda.

“One Day…November 22, 2007”

Katie likens herself to Jesus’s disciple Peter—both she and Peter love Jesus, but they also both continually mess up. 

Katie feels blessed—not because of anything she’s done, but because of what God has done for her in her obedience to Him. She decides to start a nonprofit business that will allow people from the United States to sponsor the education of the neediest children in Uganda. Her parents help her establish the nonprofit in the United States while she formalizes things in Uganda.

She moves out of the schoolhouse and into a large house with four bedrooms and a gate—unlike most other homes in the region. Although she initially feels strange about moving into a house so large, she feels that God is leading her to move in. Soon after getting settled in, her many friends and acquaintances begin to move in and out when needed; one friend, Christine, stays permanently to “help me with the children who would soon start coming to my house each day for lunch and help with their homework” (48). Katie also pays her a small wage and provides all her meals as compensation for her help.

Another friend, Oliver, helps Katie find the neediest children in the village, who could most desperately use the sponsorship. Many of the children are orphans or being raised by elderly or disabled relatives, and she quickly discovers that they need much more help than just money for education. She provides a meal for each child every day, helps them with homework, provides medical care, and does a Bible study. She even starts a ministry for children in the village where she takes food, clothing, and medical supplies to those who aren’t part of the sponsorship program.

“One Day…January 12, 2008”

Everyone in the village is excited about the sponsorship program because they would never have been able to afford the school fees, supplies, uniforms, or meals otherwise. Whenever the people thank her, she uses the interaction as an opportunity to share the love of Jesus with them. 

In the village, Katie is known colloquially as “Mommy” because she mothers the motherless in the village. She recalls how she became an adoptive mother to her first daughter, Scovia. Before she came to live with Katie, Scovia’s nine-year-old sister, Agnes, was her caregiver. Scovia was only five, and they had another sister, Mary, who was seven. They had been orphaned and were struggling to live. One day, the roof caved in on Agnes, and she was taken to the hospital, but she didn’t receive care because she didn’t have money to pay for it. When Katie heard about the accident, she went to the hospital, paid Agnes’s fees (only $20), and took her sisters home to look after them. One morning, Scovia asks Katie if she can call her mommy, and at that moment she realizes she is going to adopt the otherwise homeless girls.

Months later, she adopts two more sisters, Prossy and Margaret. Despite the challenges, “We relished getting to know one another and learning the ups and downs of this new family” (62).

“One Day…Tuesday, February 19, 2008”

Katie journals about how her house is loud and crowded, but it’s also full of worship, fun, and laughter. She says that it’s not just her house—it’s God’s house.