What does home mean for you?

My name is Allison Sandoval. I am a 20 year old college Junior. To describe my family, I ask people have you seen "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" because that is how my family is exactly expect we aren't Greek we are Lebanese. I might be young, but what home means to me is the sound of my families voices, laughter, joy, sadness, and most of all home is the time we have together as one, as a whole.

Home, to me, is epitomized in this lyric from The Apache Relay (www.theapacherelay.com): "Home is not places; it is LOVE!" -

With the kids grown and living on each coast home is very special when we are all together and the house is once again filled with everyones voices and laughter.  But mostly these days home is the touch of my wife and the smell of her pillow.

Home used to be where my children occasionally visited and I got a lot of peace and quiet. Now we have foster daughters that we are adopting. My home is now alive, crazy, loud, messy and filled with love. I do miss the peace sometimes, but then I get hugs and kisses and it's well worth the price.

Home is the place in which you don't feel lonely.  You experience acceptance for who you are. Very few people are actually "at home" at any given moment in time.

Home is family. Not a building, not a place, not an address.  It is whenever and wherever we come together as a family and just enjoy being together! Laughter, tears, quiet times - that is home to me.

I heard your story about your grandfather's passing.  Here is my story about my mother's passing. For a few weeks before my mother died of cancer, often she would reach out as if she were trying to touch something.  When I questioned her she said she could see the other side, that each day this world grew dimmer and the other side more clear.  When I asked what she could see, she told me she could see Jesus and her mother waiting for her.  She also said it was as though there were a sheer curtain hanging between the two worlds.  

Then one morning about a week before she went home to be with the Lord, she woke me up early and asked me to climb into her hospital bed with her.  She began to tell me how she had been to heaven.  She spoke of the beautiful plants, flowers, trees, vegetables all of sizes and colors we do not have here on earth.  She also spoke about the beautiful gates, streets of gold, mansions and seeing loved ones who had gone on before her.  She described each one in detail, even commenting that just because you are in heaven doesn’t mean your personality changes.  She shared that her sister was trying to organize everyone!  I asked her about a favorite aunt and she replied “Oh, you mean my best friend? Who do you think to me on the tour?”  She asked if I believed her.  I said yes, it’s just that I have just never talked to anyone who had been to heaven before!  We discussed that she could go to be with the Lord anytime, just reach out and take his hand, she replied, yes, I know, but it’s time yet! Mom passed away very peacefully with a room filled with her loved ones.  What a privilege it was to see her pass from death unto LIFE!  When the hospice gal came she said she truly felt the presence of the Lord, she had been to many passings but never one with such peace in the room room with more that 20 people who had just lost a loved one!

Now when I know of someone who has just lost a loved one who has gone home to be with the Lord, I share my mom's heaven experience, just as I have with you.  I brought me great peace; my hope is it will bring peace to others as well!

In Christ,
Kim