Remembering: 9/11/2001

I have spent time on Facebook today reading people's stories. Their little statuses detailing where they were when the attacks on the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and the plane crash in PA occurred. Maybe it is my "friends", but almost everyone was in high school or middle school at the time. Which is so strange to me; that 10 years ago, we - I - were in high school. High school: where our entire lives are before us and all the dreams we dreamed seem possible.

Did 9/11 change that? I'm sure ...in more ways than one.

I have spent today reflecting on how thankful I am for the men and women who serve in our military, our police officers, the bravery of our local fire departments, our first responders.

I have also spent a good bit of time thinking about the children who won't remember, like my baby. The children whose lives were dramatically changed because their parents got up to go to work and never came home. During all the coverage of that horrific day, I remember one story of a little girl who kept begging her mom for something on their way to daycare in New York City. The mom was late for work...in the World Trade Center. But the child kept begging, the mother gave in...and that singular act of giving in to her child saved her life.

And, like everyone else today, I have been thinking about where I was on September 11, 2001...I was 17 years old. My sister and I babysat for a local women's Bible study. We had been doing that for years; once a week for 4 hours. We were homeschooled, so we had the flexibility to babysit in the mornings. That morning, on September 11th, about 45 minutes to an hour into the morning, the mothers traipsed back in. Without a word to my sister or I, they grabbed their kids and went home. I remember looking at my sister as we wondered the same thing: what was going on? Finally, the church secretary came and told us. It didn't seem real, of course. But it was so very real.

There is no denying or ignoring the tragedy of 9/11. I hope that 10 years later, we haven't forgotten the courage, the hope and spirit of overcoming that our Nation embraced in the midst of a horrific event. So much has changed since that fateful Tuesday, but hopefully, those characteristics of courage and hope have not been forgotten.