Parents without borders.

LIKE MOST NEWLY-MARRIED COUPLES, KATHRYN AND Gary Davis dreamed of having children together, filling their home with children's things, and devoting their time to the little ones in their charge.

All of those things have happened, just not in the way they expected. Since 1998, the Davises of Auburn, Indiana have "parented" 52 Filipino orphans, all with physical problems, and brought them to the U.S. for medical treatment and eventual adoption. They adopted three children themselves, and the others have all found permanent homes through licensed adoption agencies.

The organization they started, For the Children International Medical Foundation, began when, after seven years of trying to have birth children, the Davises decided to turn their attention to something they had always had a goal of doing anyway--international adoption. While waiting for a daughter in China, they were told of a 14-month-old boy at an orphanage in Silang, near Manila, in the Philippines. He had a hole in his skull and had been abandoned.

"The doctors there said that if he lived to be 4, he'd be a vegetable," says Gary Davis, a physician at Parkview Hospital in Fort Wayne. "He could sit independently for only 15 seconds." After much discussion and prayer, the Davises decided that if they brought the boy to the U.S. he could probably be saved by surgery. They prepared a room with a crib and a mobile, and four weeks later they went to get their son.

Soon after Gary took him out of the stroller in the airport, the boy was toddling around. "We were in shock," he says.

The boy, now their 8-year-old son, Michael, had surgery to repair the hole and remove a golf-ball-size mass of brain tissue that had grown through his forehead. Michael--who is now developmentally normal and thriving--has since been joined by a sister, Madison, 6, from China, and a 6-year-old brother, Joey, also from the Philippines.

The Davises maintained their connection with the orphanage in the Philippines and began paying for more children to be brought to Indiana for treatment, a cost of about $1,400 each. They started by helping one to three children a year. "But when it got to be more than that, we knew we needed help," Gary says.

They sought nonprofit status for their foundation and began collecting donations, ranging from money to medical treatment, as well as donated volunteer hours. A local dentist has even agreed to visit the orphanage twice a year.

Kathryn, a former nurse, now spends much of her time coordinating the efforts of the foundation. She travels to the orphanage every other month, training the staff in everything from hand washing to basic nursing procedures.

When the children enter the U.S. they are under the legal guardianship of the Davises. While undergoing their initial medical treatment--most of which is donated--the children stay with host families, always within a few hours of the Davises' home.

Bob and Cindy Palmer, of Granger, Indiana, suffered through several failed adoptions before hearing about the Davises. In their 40s with two children, they desperately wanted a third and agreed to host a child with a heart defect who weighed only 8 pounds at 13 months. He is now their son, a healthy toddler named Noah.

"They are so down-to-earth," Cindy Palmer says of the Davises, who live in a saltbox-style home with a menagerie of cats and dogs, many of which had their own medical issues and were given away by other owners.

PRAYER AND FAITH LEAD THE COUPLE THROUGH MANY tough decisions, such as which children can be helped by treatment and which host families to choose. "We pray for guidance," says Gary. "It's been a lot more work than we expected, but we've never been more motivated."

Their work is not without pitfalls. Unrest in the Philippines sometimes delays the arrival of sick children here, and the country doesn't move quickly with paperwork.

Still, the Davises know they've made a difference. "We know that this is what God wants us to be doing," Gary says.

KATHRYN & GARY DAVIS FOUNDERS, FOR THE CHILDREN INTERNATIONAL MEDICAL FOUNDATION

PARISH: Immaculate Conception, Auburn, Indiana

BIGGEST CHALLENGE SO FAR: Questions to our children regarding their "real" Mom and Dad.

WE WOULDN'T MISS: Every Sunday we have dinner with the entire family at Grandma and Grandpa Davis' house.

WHEN WE GET SOME FREE TIME: Gary likes golf and woodworking, Kathryn loves watercolor and acrylic painting.

By DEANNA CSOMO MCCOOL, a freelance writer in Mishawaka, Indiana.