easter weekend

we had a busy easter weekend. on saturday, we met brooke & patrick in gaffney for lunch & outlet shopping. they live in rock hill, so it's a perfect midpoint for us. as soon as patrick finishes graduate school at winthrop, they're moving to iowa where he is starting a position as a band director. we're trying to see them as much as possible before they leave in june. we'll miss them and we hope they start blogging so we can keep in touch easily!
chris and i had a nice service at our church easter morning before leaving for alabama. we had learned on saturday that my grandmother (mom's mom) passed away early that morning. she's had some recent health problems and had been in the hospital, so this was not unexpected. we left greenville sunday afternoon to be with my family and attend the funeral on monday. it was held in the town where my mom grew up - brundidge, al. i hadn't been there since i was a small child, so we visited some places that were important to my mom. it reminds me of the town in to kill a mockingbird, which is my mom's favorite book.
house where my mom grew up (though it's been renovated...they never had a tin roof). salem baptist church - where my parents got married. the funeral was also held here.napa auto parts store that my grandfather owned - i never knew him since he passed away the year before i was born.

the juxtaposition of my grandmother's death and easter sunday reminded me that God is bigger than life or death and that He's in control of all things. "for i am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord." ~romans 8:38-39