in Remembrance

today, the seven anniversary of 9/11, i cannot in good conscience write my usual humorous, sarcastic post. as i sit here, remembering that day with a clarity that i can't attribute to many other days in my life, i am humbled. there are those days in history, where everyone can tell you where they were, what they were doing when they heard. and somehow, sharing those stories is healing. i was on my way to work ( i was a case manager) and had just found out the week before that i was pregnant with my second child. i was running late that day and as i was driving i heard them talk about the first tower being hit on the radio. the dj's kept saying that if you were anywhere near a tv, you just had to see it. so i went back home (hey- i'm already late, what's a few more minutes?) i think at that point i assumed it was a small plane, just an accident. when i turned on the tv i was shocked by what was before my eyes. as i'm watching this report, live, the second tower was hit. at first, i thought they were replaying the first tower. then i realized what was going on. my mom, at that time, was a school nurse. i called her at work and asked if they knew what was going on. nobody did ( i wouldn't think anyone would have a tv on at the beginning of the school day). they turned on the tvs in all the classrooms, not realizing what horrors the kids were about to see. people jumping out of windows, firemen running out of the building holding small children, people running through the streets bloodied and hysterical. they quickly had to turn it off and my mom said she spent the rest of the morning comforting children who were having panic attacks. my husband was working at the dayton airport that day. they had no idea what was going on either until planes just started coming in all over and landing. finally, the foreman turned on a radio and they found out. he called me to make sure i was ok and to tell me not to go to work ( i was already there). my office was about 2 miles from Wright Patt Air Force Base, which is one of the largest in the country. i remember spending a good part of the day, holed up in our supervisors office, watching in horror. all i could think was "how can i bring another child into this world? we're going to war". that afternoon, our boss sent us all home. when eli got home, again, we just sat in front of the tv. suddenly, he looked at me and asked "did you hear that? it's a plane". we ran outside and before our eyes, air force one flew over our house. it was so low, you read the insignia on the side. every neighbor on our street was standing on the sidewalk watching, in complete silence. the thought that the president may be just a few miles from our house scared me even more at that point. our church had an emergency service that for worship and prayer. we went and i think i cried through the entire thing. those of you who know me would know that's not normal for me (i'm not a crier:) each year, on the anniversary, i watch foxnews in the morning. they replay their newscast in real time from that morning. although it's still upsetting to watch, i want to remember. i am honored to live in a country that stands up against terrorism and banded together in a way i've never seen before or since. i thank the firefighters, policeman and other service members who were heroes in manhattan on that day. i thank our president, who stood tall and made the right choices with the information he had, and has kept us safe from attack for the last seven years. i thank the men and women who have sacrificed it all to fight a war for our protection. i pray today for the families still grieving their loss. and i'll never forget.

where were you the day the earth stood still?