Spotlight on Navy Families in San Diego

November is Military Family Month—a time to celebrate local service members and their loved ones, who greatly enrich the San Diego community. Whether they’re serving those in need, raising great kids, or building relationships that matter, let’s take a moment to recognize the military-connected individuals who make our neighborhoods better.

The Sanders Family: Finding Community

Leonie Sanders has relocated many times to support her spouse’s Navy career. Still, she considers San Diego home. There’s something special about the food here and she loves that her four kids can experience life in a major city while enjoying family-friendly vibes in surrounding neighborhoods. Most importantly, San Diego is where she met her husband, Capt. K.D. Sanders, who is currently serving as commander of Amphibious Squadron 1.

The Sanders Family (l–r): Keevon, Krislyn, Leonie, K.D., Kambria, Karrey Jr.

K.D. began his 35 years of active service (and counting) as a boatswain on the USS Midway. He met Leonie at SDSU after being selected for an enlisted-toofficer commissioning program. The Sanders are both transplants to the area—Leonie is the child of an Air Force veteran and a Thai immigrant—but they are glad to have returned many times over the years. “Not having any extended family in the area, we had to create our own community,” says Leonie. “We have watched our military friends grow and move all over the world and we are thrilled when we make it back to San Diego at the same time.”

Both Leonie and K.D. are biracial. For them, community always begins with fellow military families as well as the local black community. One thing that helps them feel at home here—and wherever the Navy sends them—is their membership in two African American service-based organizations: Jack and Jill of America and Alpha Kappa Alpha. “I call and introduce myself and let them know my family is coming,” she says. “I seek advice on everything ranging from doctors, schools, neighborhoods, extracurricular activities and hairstylists. Having the connection brings instant friendship for my kids as well as myself and my husband.”

The family feels lucky that their children have experienced the best of two worlds. They’ve lived all over the country, but also experienced the gift of lifelong friends, whom they’ve returned to again and again—enough to feel that they’ve grown up together. “You never get used to the deployments and it never gets easier,” says Leonie, “but having a community to lean on does make it tolerable.”

Avery Alfonso: Giving Back

For 17-year-old Avery Alfonso, volunteerism is a family value. The Mt. Carmel High School senior was recently awarded the Presidential Service Award for volunteering over 100 hours in the span of a year. “Growing up as a military kid, I was raised to understand the importance of service both to the country and our community,” she says.

Avery is currently managing her seventh annual toy drive to benefit Operation Homefront and Becky’s Gift. As the child of a Navy helicopter pilot (dad Brent retired as a captain in 2020), she knows the pain of family separation during the holidays. On one especially tough Christmas morning, the family opened gifts while Dad Skyped in from Qatar. That experience inspired Avery to spread holiday joy to fellow military kids as well as families dealing with cancer. To date, she has collected more than 1,000 toys for children in need.

Last year, while volunteering for the San Diego Food Bank, Avery learned that the number of food insecure people in our community doubled due to the pandemic. She enlisted the help of her mother, Anne, and together they collected half a ton of food to bolster the food bank’s efforts. “I had an overwhelming response to my food drive and saw how willing the people of our city are to help out,” she says. “I’ve learned to be comfortable asking complete strangers for donations and I’m amazed at how giving people can be.” The mother-daughter duo are also longstanding members of the National Charity League. Through the organization, they’ve volunteered for Make-A-Wish Foundation, Poway Library, After School Homework Club and more. “I am thankful that she has stuck to her endeavors,” says Anne. “It’s been a lot of work, but also very rewarding.”

The Davis-Muñoz Family: Raising the Next Generation

Samantha Davis-Muñoz always dreamed of becoming a mother through adoption. She now shares four children with her wife, Petty Officer 1st Class Leandra Davis-Muñoz, an operations specialist in the Navy. Soon after their wedding, the couple began thinking seriously about fostering babies. “I discussed the need in foster care,” says Samantha, “that the kids were going to need extra support aside from just love. Luckily, my wife is amazing enough to have jumped on board immediately.”

In December of 2017, the family welcomed 6-month-old Montgomery. He had been born the same week they applied for a foster license—it felt meant to be. Other babies entered the home and left, but his adoption was finalized one year later.

Around that time, the family experienced a difficult goodbye with one of their foster children. They wanted to take a break. But a social worker called seeking temporary care for a baby girl who hadn’t been placed with a family due to her location. “We couldn’t sleep knowing she was in a group home,” says Samantha. “We picked Ventura up from a parking lot at 10:30 p.m. with her big, chubby, round cheeks.” They fostered their daughter for two years, welcoming opportunities to connect with her half-siblings and family. Their efforts to keep those relationships strong eventually paid off in the most beautiful way. “It was so humbling and such an honor to have her biological mother and family ask us personally to be her forever family.”

The adoption was finalized soon after.

Samantha says that thankfully, her family rarely faces discrimination as a same-sex couple fostering children in San Diego. However, there have been a few derogatory remarks directed their way. “We never let that stop us from what we believe our path to be,” she says. “We simply wish them well and carry on.”

The Davis-Muñoz family is in the final stages of adopting two more children, both of whom entered the home through foster care. Samantha says that building her family through fostering has been a rewarding experience—one that has taught her to give herself and others more grace and support. Her advice to families considering this process is to become trauma informed. “Also, consider that fostering is more than fostering a child it’s fostering a family,” she says. “The goal of foster care is to help put families back together and the kids always still want to love their families. If the children end up needing a forever home, it’s a beautiful opportunity to create a family through a need.”

Anne Malinoski is a contributing writer and mother of two boys. Her husband served as a Navy submarine officer for the first five years of their marriage.

November 2021 • SanDiegofamily.com • 21