The way our house was set up is it was a ranch and there was a bathroom off to the right
and then if you walked down the hall there was a family room.
I walked out to go to the bathroom and I saw him at the end of the hall.
My name is Dawn Paulson.
I am 47 years old and I have three children, an 18 year old, a 16 year old and a 14 year
old.
They're just, they're great kids, they have a great faith, all three of them play lacrosse
so I sit at a lot of lacrosse games but yet it's still learning the rules.
I feel very blessed to have the three kids I have.
So my mom, she is one of the most resilient people I've ever met.
She's been through a lot and she doesn't really show it.
She puts a whole lot of work into raising us three kids.
I have been at Shepherd of the Hills for about nine years now.
I have taught, or I should say mentored for confirmation.
I actually worked at the church for a couple months in the summer.
I have since I was young done something, act lighting, something in the church always.
So growing up was an event.
I was born in Delaware.
We moved eight times before I was in fifth grade.
Here's my dad and I in those awkward junior high years, my dad passed away in 06, an accident.
And a lot of people would say what a hard way to grow up, just moving so much and the
change and making new friends, but I think I will get it as what a fun, adventurous childhood
I had.
Again another picture of my dad and I at a formal event.
I miss him, but I'm glad he's not here because I don't think he would have handled my health
very well.
I have multiple sclerosis.
It's an autoimmune disease that affects any part of the brain it wants to go to.
So there's about 400,000 people in the U.S. who have it.
Now they're going to, my wounds have been packed, so now they're going to take out
packing and then they'll get cultures back.
If you lined all 400,000 of us up, none of us would probably look exactly the same.
There are some telltale signs, problems with walking, a lot of MS patients are in wheel
chairs, things like that, but then there are people like me who don't fit the norm and
have woken up deaf, I've had my entire large intestine removed because my digestive system
doesn't work correctly, trouble with my eyes, my left side is very weak, and the worst part
is the fatigue.
I'm very passionate about getting my kids to 18 with me being as healthy as I possibly
can.
My job right now I feel is to just get them to be god-loving, good people.
I will be honest, there are times when I do wonder what's this life going to be like for
me.
I've never ever asked why did I get MS.
I choose to look at it as not why do I have it, what was me, but why do I have it, what's
my job here?
What can I give?
How can I help?
People often ask me how to describe my faith, and if I were to describe my faith I would
say I have a child-like faith.
I think that comes from, I know it comes from something that happened to me when I was little.
When I was five years old, I was kidnapped.
Little weird, because this is, this would be me, but that was the year, this is the year
it happened, that's me.
I have a memory that is almost like a movie, little segments.
I don't remember every single thing, but I do remember a lot.
I think what people don't understand too is that five, you don't understand what that
violation is.
You don't have a word for what's happening to you.
At five, everything seems far away, but there was a drive-in movie theater, and I remember
we went and parked the car there, and then I kind of went blank, and then the next memory.
The next memory is why I have, I think, the child-like faith.
Because at the moment when it was the worst, I wasn't there.
I was being held by God, and it was surreal.
It was literally, I was literally in his hands.
It was definitely, it was a hard, it was a hard story to hear.
You don't want it to happen to anyone, let alone your mom.
I was so just sad, and I was like, why?
Why does this keep, why do all these things happen to people who are really great?
I mean, that's just, that was definitely something that was hard.
Anyone who hears my story, my whole story, all of it, the childhood, the divorce, the
being a single mom of three kids, having MS, people always say, how do you have faith?
How do you keep that?
I know, for me, the answer is, I have proof.
I was held.
Dawn is a great example of the power of community, and the power of a community of faith that,
where she has embraced, where the community has embraced her, where her children have
found a place where they belong.
I mean, it's truly what it means to be a community of faith, the sense of belonging, the sense
of knowing that you have an anchor in your life that's always going to be there for you,
no matter what you go through.
Dawn's situation in life, I can't imagine her not having a community of faith like Shepard
of the Hills that can really help her and be with her and walk alongside her.
Dawn and her family are faithful, they show up, gosh, what she goes through and what she
has to deal with in her life, none of us can probably imagine unless we're going through
it ourselves, but there she is, she shows up, and they are there for other people, not
just for themselves, but they are there for others as well, and there's such a powerful
witness in that.
Shepard of the Hills means to me a home.
It has been everything for us.
I think my hopes for this church moving forward is that we don't just want to grow, to grow
our little community, but we want to grow so that we can grow to the people in Austin
and all the places that we touch.
The world needs us.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
