I remember waking up to a phone call from my husband Bill. The first thing he said was " I need you to find Dad and Karen". Why? was my confused response. You see they were flying out from Seattle, Washington and heading to Washington DC. We both knew that. Why did I need to find them? He then told me that there had been an attack and the towers fell, airplanes were missing and I needed to see what I could find out. I actually argued with him that he had to be wrong because those towers wouldn't fall. The previous bombing hadn't done it, this one couldn't have either...right? I got off the phone, turned on the TV and my world changed in that moment. I scrambled to the phone and called Karen's sister and thankfully Bob and Karen were at their house. The airport had been closed and everyone turned around. I sank into the couch, called my friend Angie and left a message on her machine. I remember saying "Angie get up and turn on the TV". She called me back a few minutes later and told me she knew from the sound of my voice something was very wrong and we spent the rest of the day on the phone watching every channel we could and comparing notes in disbelief. I remember Peter Jennings talking to one woman on the phone that was looking for her husband. She was pregnant with twins and his two friends had made it out. The three men were good friends and inseparable but they couldn't find her husband. She just kept saying she had to find him, her and the babies needed him. I think about her often and wonder if she ever did find him- did he make it home or was he one of the lost? That's just one of the many stories that touched me that day and in the days and months to come as more stories emerged of ordinary people doing extraordinary things. It was a horrible moment in our history but it was a shining moment as well as we heard about the Flight 93 men and women who fought back. To this day when I use the expression "let's roll" to the kids I think of and pray for them and those they left behind . I also think of the stories of the police and firefighters and everyday citizens that risked everything to go into the towers that day and didn't make it out... And for those who did , they turned around and went right back in to rescue and then finally to recover their fellow man. That morning when my sweet little baby girl woke up I remember crushing her in my arms and thinking to myself that her world had just shifted and changed and she didn't even realize it. Some ask how God could have let it happen. I believe there is a reason for everything we endure. Sometimes we understand the reasons and other times we have to wait and see. Unfortunately we also have free will and those men that meant to do us harm that day, willingly and freely decided to go against everything that God commands. Was HE there? I know He was... and he had tears in his eyes. In the planes, in the halls of the tower, everywhere someone called out to him and needed him in that moment...He was there.
September 11, 2004 I was looking thru pictures of that day on a news site and my toddler, Justin was looking at them from my lap. We got to one picture and he stopped me cold when he said in his sweet little voice. "There's God." I started crying. I asked him again who it was and he looked up at me and said," mommy it's God." This is the picture posted below... Sometimes it's the kids that remind us that in our darkest moment, 9/11, the days that followed, or even August 1, 2009 when my Aunt was killed in a accident - God is there. Always...
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