Daniel's results

Thank you for all your prayers. Again, the doctor is very happy. Daniel 2nd EEG showed as the 1st one that all is normal. His MRI showed beautiful and there is nothing there that is not suppose to be there! Daniel is still on the anti-seizure medication "kepra". However, he has started the self-withdrawal that kids do. He is still taking the dose of 1/2 tablet at morning and night which gave him 20 mg of medication per 1 kg of weight when he first started the medication however he has gained a good amount of weight hence his dose is actually 15mg per kg. As Daniel has no visible side effect from the medication and has been seizure free, even with fever, since he strated the full dose. Hurray. She agreed to keep Daniel on medication until next May. As Jacob is starting school in September he will likely be bringing home more virus then we had last year. Since Daniel seizures are provoked by virus we want Daniel to protected from more seizure.

My 3 minute testimony

I might not be blogging a lot lately, but I am sure doing some writing and typing. so here is step one of what I have been working on. This is what I will be sharing at Friday, July 31st in the evening at the SHE SPEAKS 2009 Conference as my 3 minutes testimony.

"Hi I am Roxanne Paul, I am from Ottawa, Canada were I was born and raised.

One of my favorite things to do as a child was to look at my parents wedding picture album. My parents had met while in high school and I felt an intense pressure to meet my future husband while I was in high school. I went from boyfriend to boyfriend, searching for the guy you would fill all my needs, wants and desires. This lead me to find myself divorced and in major financial debt by the I was in my early twenties.

In the midst of my pleasure seeking to dull the pain of my situation, my mother took me aside. She told me I should go back to the church based youth group I had attended a few years earlier, as at least then I was happy. To get her off my case I promised her that I would go on two conditions 1) that would be on a weekend I was off which were very few, and 2) that it didn't cost to much money.

Within a few days, I received by mail an invitation to a weekend retreat for youth and young adults the cost was about 10$. I figure that was the amount I would spend on a cover for one night at a dance club. And honestly I was tired of the kind of guys I met in dance clubs. So why not see what kind of guys I could meet a this church thing. I looked at my calendar and low and behold it was on a weekend I was off.

Here I was heading off to this gathering, of course wearing one of my best outfits, with my hair and makeup on just right, all ready to meet a great, handsome, polite church guy.

Once there I looked the crowd over, no handsome guy! I took a seat and sighed in desperation. Then I though maybe he is just running late, I would listen to the talk so that I could make small talk with him at brake.

Then minister walked in, I was shocked he was not an ordinary clean cut boring man. He had long hair, piercings, and tattoos, Needless to say he intrigued me. He started his talk but telling us the fast paced life style of needing and wanting everything NOW is not how God intended for us to live and that is why we have so many problems. This all made so much sense to me, I started truly listening to all he and the other speakers were saying.

That weekend I realized so many things:
-that God loved me, the way I had longed to be loved all my life.
-I learned that I was constantly getting hurt in relationship because I was not living the way God designed me to live.
-I realized the love I had been seeking all my life could only be filled by God, not some guy.
-I learned that God love me so much that had sent his son, Jesus to die on the cross , to pay for all my sins, that is all those things I did that hurt my relationship with God. It was those things that I did that made God farther from me, he never left me, it was I would had left him by choices I made.
-But God was giving me an other chance, I accept all Jesus did on the cross for me and told God all my sins. A huge weight was lifted off my shoulders and I felt like a whole new persons.

With all this new knowledge, I knelt down in the chapel and said "God, I give you permission to love me" this was not easy as I had been so hurt by those I loved, but i could not keep going the way I was. As I gave him permission I pleaded with him, to not hurt me and to be very gentle. In my mind I saw the picture of a rose bud being gently opened to reveal a magnificent rose. He said that some of the peeling might hurt but that he would do it patiently, gently, and lovingly.

This happened over the next few years, and in some areas is still happening today.
As I started attending church regularly and attending other Christan gatherings, my life became filled with people that helped me out to learn more about God, and His Word the bible, how to talk with God that is prayer and help me to do the changes in my life I choose to do in order to love God more and more.

Today I have can say that I have found the one who fills all my needs, wants and desires, and that is not my husband, he does try, but the one who successfully fills all those things, in his timing, is God. "

Now to work on the 5 minutes, teaching talk on David.

Trivia answer

David didn;t know at the time of his anointing. He found out in the midst of his exile... 1 Samuel 23 ish.

Old testament trivia

Anyone familiar with Old testament:
When Samuel anoints David, does David realize that this anointing means he is the new King of Israel? Scripture just says he is anointed and the Spirit of the Lord came upon him. David is anointed in front of his father and brothers. That is it. There is no mention of what this anointing mean. Is that because the people knew what it meant without saying it? David is only Israel's second king. The previous king was Saul. Saul was anointed King by Samuel privately and Samuel does tell him that it is a kingship anointing. Is this because he was the first, or not? What I really what to know is does David know he is king when he is hiding away in the caves of the desert hiding from Saul who is trying to kill him?
Please let me ASAP. Thanks.

She Speaks conference

I am on countdown .... 3 weeks until one of my dreams becomes reality. In three weeks, I will be among some incredible women of God who have helped me become who I am and have inspired me to be more then who I am. I am attending the "SHE SPEAKS 2009" conference by Proverbs 31 Ministries. At this conference, I will be soaking in God, and learning and experiencing what He has in store for me. Plus, I will be evaluated on two speaking sessions. One of which is my "3 minutes testimony" on how God has changed my life, and the other is a "5 minutes talk on my favorite Scripture verse".
I have been really struggling with which verse to do... I love "Let the little children come to me," but I kinda want a adult weekend and decided to let that one rest for now. Jacob lead me to discover who is David. Hence, I discovered that even though Saul tried to Kill David many many times, and made David flee his wife and made him hide in the stronghold of the dessert, and eventually made him live and fight wars with the enemy,... When David had the chance to kill Saul, not once but twice he did not kill him! So read the next few post as a work out the details of just how this presentation of only 5 minutes will work out. I have enough for a weekend conference, including charts of what Saul did, how David reacted, how God helped, and how that can look it our lives,... (it's not complete, because I realize that would take way more then five minutes)... I am thinking of starting up another blog for old testament bible study.... Any of you interested in that? Let me know. I might work on that when I get back from North Carolina, if God approves!

4 years old

My oldest son turned 4 years old a few weeks ago.
I must say I think I love "4".
Since the approach of his birthday he has gained so much confidence. That is to say the confidence that all those "older and wiser" mother would tell me he would gain, as they watch my dear son wrap himself in my skirt and not let go of me. That confidence that "other people" predicted he would never gain because I didn't "make" him stay in childcare settings. Well,... here we are at 4 with a son who loves to come and go as he pleases. Mind you he can't always do it, but he is sure enjoying it when he can. Here comes the pleasure of teaching him when it's ok to venture away and when it's best to stay close!
I also love the fact that at 4, Jacob decided to be brave. He used this bravery to sit in the front of our tandem kayak and paddle with a small white paddle. He was a natural at paddling. I guess those years of sitting on our laps and paddling "with us" really paid off. After all he was only a few weeks old, when he was in a Kayak for the first time - nearly gave my in-laws a heart attack!
Overall, I am enjoy teaching Jacob the world and I love his curiosity. I also love the fact that our time is more qualitative, a good thing since our time will diminish in quantity in a few months with the start of school. This last part is the one thing that I don't like about 4. But I think overall it will be good.

Unites States of America

So much for my desire to have the children visit all 10 provinces and 3 territories of their own country before going to another country.
Jacob does have 8 provinces under his belt! The twins a mere 2, but hey...

Yesterday, the children experience the United States of America for the first time.
More precisely some "cross-border" shopping! I know that some of you might be totally against this,... to appease your minds our purpose was to purchase an "American" cell phone to use on our big trip in a few weeks. We did come home with a new DVD for the children one of which we have not seen in the stores in Canada and two really cute tops for me to wear at the conference in a few weeks.

Some of the highlights of the trip include the following:

1) When mom is driving on a big bridge which she does not like doing, especially when the driving surface is metallic with little holes all in it. It feels slippery. and dad whispers to mom so the kids don't hear "at least they have really high curves" The newly four year old will yell out from the back seat in a totally surprise tone "Hey, we're not falling in the water!?" Nothing, like the child blurring out the mother's fear.... Joey laughed and I laughed along nervously.


2) If mom and dad have valid passports and are both travelling by car with their children, the children can enter and leave the United States with Birth Certificates as their sole documentation. All the official websites say the children need passports, however plenty of private website (according to my dear husband) say that all you needs is their birth certificates. So we decide to save some money and try crossing over with only the basic documentation for the children and it worked. Hurray!


3) Children, especially the four year old variety, might very well expect the United State to be a place rather then a collection of places. Meaning, he might be very frustrated and confused at more roads and places to drive to once he arrives at the United States.


4) Even if a child has only seen the occasion pictures of Ronald McDonald's he will still get very excited and fascinated at a live size statue of said character. Pictures to come on facebook albums.


5) If a precious little almost 2 year old little girl is really grumpy stick her in a vehicle and drive several hours and she will be the happiest little girl in the whole world. No lie, this is totally true. This is the same little girl that will tantrum if when we pull up to our house before she has had her fill of a drive.


6) I am starting to relax a little more regarding my attending the SHE SPEAKS 2009 conference as I now feel confident to have a cute business casual top for each of the three days of the conference. Some of my "still in touch with style" friends will be coming over within the next few weeks to help me put some outfits together for the conference. A good old .. play dress up time. Now only if I felt confident about which subject I will speak about during my 3 minutes and 5 minutes judge speaking time!!!!


7) It is frustrating for a nearly 2 year old little girl to be told to tell her parents when she needs to go potty, but when she does there is no potty in sight, or you just past a exit from the highway and the next one is several minutes away. (Esther is potty training and doing well, for simply sake we are doing her first as she is ready. Daniel still thinks potty time is a time of self-discovery!)