“We’re in this Together”: How the Davis Family is Answering God’s Call

Foster care is a calling — one that Kim Davis and her entire family feel God has placed on their hearts. 

And when it’s God’s plan, the pieces fall into place.

Kim and her husband, Tim, have six biological children, but since they were first married, they have been talking about foster care.

“We fell into it, really,” Kim explained. “Someone at our church needed a home for their four children temporarily, and we were the only family in the church that could take all four.”

Two of these children became Davises forever, and this experience opened the door for Kim and Tim to officially pursue opening their home to children in foster care. 

After Families 4 Families Chief Recruitment Officer Shannon Ramsey visited the Davises’ church, Kim and Tim decided to begin their foster care journey through Families 4 Families. 

“We fostered a sibling group of two girls and found out they had a brother. It took us nine months to welcome the brother, and now we have all three of them,” she said. “Then we felt like we were supposed to take one more.”

When they welcomed another little girl into their home, they learned she had a sister in one foster home and a brother in another. 

The family decided they had to bring the siblings back together. Earlier this year, they welcomed her brother, and later this spring, they hope to welcome her sister.

Though their house is bursting with love and little ones, Kim doesn’t consider splitting up the sibling groups. 

“They’ve already lost their mom and dad, and that is almost their entire world. The other piece of that world is their siblings,” Kim said. “I have three brothers, and I can’t imagine being separated from them. It’s a big enough trauma and hole in your heart to lose your parents. Then, on top of that, children can lose their siblings.

“We will sacrifice whatever to bring them back together.”

This calling to welcome children in need isn’t something only Kim and Tim feel as a couple; it’s something their biological and adopted children feel as well.

“God really called our whole family to this,” Kim explained. 

Even so, her family can feel tired, overwhelmed and burned out. Kim has worried in the past about how bringing children into their home with trauma or difficult behaviors will affect her biological and adopted kids. 

When her family is stretched thin, Kim and her husband bring them together to make sure everyone is on the same page. It’s then her kids remind her they’re all in.

“Our kids say things like ‘Mom, yes, we’re still in this. We can’t imagine sending any of the kids back to what they came from,’” she shared.

“They know they’re sacrificing time with mom and dad or bedroom space, and everyone is still on board.” 

What’s made a difference for Kim is the way her church has welcomed her family and other families who foster — from stocking a clothes closet where foster families can grab items they need to the kids ministry leader planning a special class for children who feel overwhelmed at church.

“They see a need, and they want to accommodate it right away,” Kim shared. 

“We sit close to the front in service, and if our children misbehave, everyone is going to see it. But it’s okay! It’s okay because they see what fostering really is. It’s not perfect. It’s messy and crazy. But as they sit behind us every Sunday, they see our children beginning to love on other people or go down to the altar and pray. Transformation is happening right in front of their eyes.”

One recent Sunday, Kim remembers bringing one of her foster daughters to church in a bad mood. As Kim held her daughter and swayed during worship to calm her down, her foster son sat behind her. 

Since coming into the Davis home, his behavior has improved, but it’s still been a struggle. He’d been kicked out of daycares in the past and struggled with emotional outbursts at school.

On this Sunday, something was different.

“I felt a presence behind me, and I turned around. He’s standing up on the chair with his hand raised to the sky and his eyes closed to worship Jesus,” she recalls.

It’s moments like these that remind Kim she’s doing the right thing. She’s showing children Jesus.

Throughout the ups and downs of this journey, Families 4 Families has been there. 

When Kim learned her foster son would be entering their home to be reunited with his sister, she was excited. But also nervous because of the behaviors and diagnoses she saw on his chart.

“I really let intrusive thoughts get to me and started to feel anxious. ‘How am I going to handle this? What am I going to do?’” 

What she did was reach out to her case manager and Breanna Royster, Families 4 Families case manager supervisor in South Central Georgia.

“They sent me money to buy books and helped me find a parenting coach to make sure we knew how to parent a child with these [behaviors and diagnoses],” Kim explained.

Without support like this from Families 4 Families, Kim doesn’t know if her home would have stayed open. 

“I hate to say it because this is a calling God has put on our lives, but when you have no one going to bat for you and the children in your home, it’s a very frustrating place to be,” she said.

For the Davises, foster care takes a village. It takes Kim, Tim and their kids opening their home to sibling groups. It takes their church welcoming every child with open arms, despite emotional outbursts or difficult behaviors. It takes Families 4 Families providing words of encouragement, diapers, date nights and resources so the Davis family can thrive. 

Thanks to this network of support, Kim’s little ones are improving.

“I was crying happy tears at the doctor’s office because I’ve seen so much improvement in our [foster son]. He was tearing up classrooms and getting suspended. But in our home, he feels safe. He is loved. He knows Jesus now for the first time. We’re not seeing those same behaviors,” Kim shared.

“Does he still have outbursts? Yes. But if you can just love on a kid, give them a hug, listen to them and help them breathe, it calms them. They see they can handle their problems, too.”

Kim hopes other foster parents are encouraged to look beyond the behaviors and see the child. 

“A lot of times, the chart reflects the environment they were in, not the kid they are,” she said.

And in the Davis home, six kids in foster care have found an environment where they can enjoy safety and love — where they can just be kids. 

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