(McCain and Obama agreed today would not be political. No campaign commercials, no slander, no politics. It would be a day where they set aside the race by honoring the families of 911. Together. So I had to come back to my post and do the same. I'm sure tomorrow the candidates will jump back on the campaign trail but until then, they will respect what today is and so will I. Forgive me.)
I am so thankful for this country. I am truly proud to be an American and I pray I can teach my children what an awesome country we live in. I've been thinking about how I can tell Josiah a little bit about this day. What's too much? What is it I can share with a 5 1/2 year old little boy?
This morning, like I do every single year on 9/11, I watch footage from the horrific day. I think back and remember what I was doing and where I was when I heard the news. After I heard the news of the second plane flying into the building, I was afraid. I had only been married a little over a month. We heard reports of a plane unaccounted for and the possibility of it coming for Dallas. Jeremy was a UPS man and worked in Dallas. I called him and he said he had heard the same and he was also scared. No one knew what would come next. My office and our apartment was just a few miles from DFW airport. It was the strangest thing to walk outside and not see a single plane flying.
I was working for USAA Movers Advantage. We helped relocate men and women in the military. The morning of, I had spoken with a woman married to an Officer in the Army. Their family was being relocated to Virginia where her husband would work at the Pentagon. She was still at the old house in another state waiting on the home to sell, he had already moved. We spoke on the phone before the attack happened. Since the company I worked for dealt solely with military, the phones quit ringing. The day was silent. The phones were dead. Everyone in the office was crying and stunned. I will never forget an employee screaming in the break room. Her dad, an American Airlines Pilot, was flying out of Dulles airport that morning. She was SCREAMING! Thankfully, her Dad was not one of the Pilots killed. But I will never forget the horrifying scream she let out as she feared the worst.
Today I pray for the families still grieving. For the children who never met their Fathers. For the families who still hurt because they never had a body recovered. Or the spouses who went to work angry with one another that day and maybe didn't say "I love you" that morning. The guilt, the loss, the regret, the pain. It's all so much. Too much for someone to carry. I've cried a lot this morning as I have watched some of the ceremonies and news footage. I did not lose anyone in the attacks, nor did I know anyone who did. But as Americans, I believe we all lost something that day. We lost some freedom. We are now bound in fear because that day showed us we were not as safe as we thought.
May we never forget!
