Home Again...

So I'm in Santa Barbara again for the four day weekend. It's strange to come home to such an empty house. I'm so used to having my sisters around, but now they're over 900 miles away. I don't really know what I'm expecting out of this break. Hopefully I'll get to see some friends and enjoy some time with them. But today I had a different experience than I was expecting. Today I went to my Papa and Grandma's house to help my mom and aunts clean it out. That was a strange sensation in itself, to go somewhere you've been a hundred times, but suddenly it's different. The people that filled it up are now gone, and you're going through their stuff. In a way, as I went through drawers and shelves, I felt like I began to understand them a little better. They had the most random things in the most random places. Honestly sometimes I would just start laughing. But it reminded me who my grandparents were; they were quirky, war torn, immigrants, Russian, and God fearing. They endured so much and yet kept such faith in God until the very end. My grandma wrote a book about her life that she would always try and get us to read. Sadly to say, I never read it. But now that she's gone, and I no longer have the ability to ask her about her life myself, I have the greatest desire to read her story. Who knows, maybe it will help me understand more about myself. 

{Papa and Grandma's house}

{I got some old pictures of Russia}

{Here's what I ended up collecting from their house}

                       

"But I do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning those who have fallen asleep, lest you sorrow as others who have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who sleep in Jesus."

-1 Thessalonians 4:13-14