I was born Donna Louise Paradis to Donald and Catherine Paradis on October 14, 1959, on their eighth anniversary. I was in the middle of eight children., Number five. Raised to honor God and believe in Him. I was insecure from a very young age. My brothers and sisters remember two things about me. From the time I could walk to about three or four years of age, I was always under my mom's dress walking right along with her. And the second, my whole year of first grade I would cry and scream at school. I did not want to be separated from my mother.
Married at nineteen years old and a mother of two boys at twenty-two, I was still very insecure. Looking back, I can see God's Protection and His growing me up in Him. He has brought me through painful times and taught me in them. He taught me to help others as well. He then granted me the blessing of being there for others in leading and teaching women's Bible studies.
I didn't see my worth and one evening as my son lay in bed crying because he had been cut from the High School baseball team, I said to him, "You are amazing, you have gifts, you are great at sports and you have a sense of humor, your good at math." I said to him, "I'm not great at any one thing". He said to me, "Mom, you are a good counselor. People call you all the time for help and you counsel them". It was then that I realized God had indeed given me the gift of counsel for women. He used the pain of insecurity and other areas in my life to communicate confidence in our real identity, a child of the King.
Later I was nudged into mentoring teen Moms. Lasting four to five years, I went to camp with these precious teens and their babies and mentored them throughout the years. Our director used to call it, "doing life with them". I had to return to full-time work and couldn't spend quality time with them, so I was no longer available for this ministry.
In the last several years came the ministry of "Warming Arizona". This ministry was born out of a deep desire to help those that were exposed to cold in the winter with no warm outerwear. It was all about coats and grew into giving more than that. My family and I along with friends collected clothes, shoes, backpacks, knit hats, gloves, and of course coats. We would also take packaged treats to give them as well. We handed them out to the homeless.
All this to say, none of this was done without much trembling and fear as my personality is to shrink back, but I also have a deep desire to hear His voice and forge forward in His leading. Truly the work of God, leading me and pulling me at times. And now. He has given me a story to write about. The story of what forgiveness can look like in "Behold the Diamond". This is not my book, but His.
