CORONAVIRUS (COVID-19) RESOURCE CENTER Read More
Add To Favorites

A home of healing, hope: Owasso foster family takes in children in need

Owasso Reporter - 1/19/2017

Local foster families like Rhonda and Keith Davis of Owasso are helping pave the way for abused, neglected or abandoned children to experience a better, healthier life amid unfavorable circumstances.

Over the last 10 years, the couple has fostered 33 children ? eight boys and 25 girls ? in addition to raising their five biological children ? Andrea, 14; twins Stephen and Jonathan, both 16; Taylor, 23; and Lindsay, 25.

Keith and Rhonda brought in their first child in August 2007 when they became a kinship placement for a young girl they knew out of the Laura Dester Shelter in Tulsa.

After only six weeks, the child was moved to an adoptive family, but the Davises said that experience alone shaped their decision to continue opening their home to kids in need. The couple soon transitioned from kinship care to traditional foster care.

"When she left, it was heart-wrenching for everybody in the household, but we couldn't 'unknow' ? what we've learned," Keith said. "As a family, our eyes had been made aware of how much need there was just in our own backyard for taking care of children."

According to the Oklahoma Department of Health Services, there were 15,187 confirmed victims of child abuse or neglect statewide in 2015 alone, with 2,680 of them occurring in Tulsa County. Likewise, the Owasso Police Department reported 314 cases of child-abuse-related incidents from 2007 to 2016.

Last month, Owasso saw one of its worst cases of child abuse with two 9-month-old infants found neglected and malnourished and multiple family members charged. Rhonda said while tragic, it's these moments she also celebrates because the kids are saved and have a chance of growing up in a healthy, wholesome environment.

"I pray all the time that children will be rescued, that hidden children no one knows about will be rescued," she said. "When I hear a story about that, yes it's devastating, but there's a little part of me that is rejoicing because they're found and they don't have to live that way anymore."

The Davises said unfortunate situations like this are a good reminder of why they have spent the last decade opening their doors to dozens of children of all ages in need. What's more, the couple not only serves as foster parents, but they also play the role of a "bridge family" in the community.

They said many of the children's biological parents don't always have ill intent; they simply may not know how to properly raise a child. By being a bridge family, the couple is given the opportunity to connect with these parents, support them, build a relationship with them and mentor them in their time of need.

"Having (the parents) here for the holidays, for Thanksgiving, doing birthday parties, just doing dinner together ? it gives them something they've never seen before," Rhonda said. "So not only are you showing the children there's a different way to live, but you're showing their parents there's a different way to live."

Taylor added, "You get to be a continued support, if you develop those relationships with the birth parents, then you don't just have that relationship with that child and hand them back. You have that relationship with them as a family, and they will continue to turn to you when they need (help)."

The second-to-oldest sibling, Taylor shared that she grew up unaccustomed to foster care until her parents started taking in these children. She said her worldview changed after closely caring for the family's 13th child who was stricken to a wheelchair with spinal muscular atrophy.

It wasn't long after this experience that Taylor switched her college major to social work and made a career out of it. She worked at DHS and child welfare for a year and a half, and she now works at local foster care agency.

"It's my life, I love it, and I think foster parents are the coolest people in the world, and I love getting to help find them and work with them" Taylor said. "(My parents) didn't just teach about loving people and reaching out, but they have shown us what love looks like and what Christ looks like by bringing people in."

Lindsay, the oldest sibling and a single mother, also adopted two of the family's babies in foster care ? one in May 2014 and the other in June 2016 ? which they said has drastically changed her life and the lives of the kids.

Over the years, the Davises' home has served as a sort of safe haven for these kids ? and even some birth parents ? with all members of the family pitching in to help. One summer, they had 11 kids, including their five biological children, living in the house at one time for about a three-week period.

"My greatest gift is watching how (fostering) has affected my family," Keith said. "I think that they are all very different people as a result of choosing to foster ? just the fact that they wouldn't be who they are today had they not had those experiences."

Rhonda added that in fostering these children over the years, one of the biggest struggles has been to give them back. However, with humility, she said, "It's not about our heartache, it's not about our pain; it's about their heartache and their pain and what can we do to help heal it."