9/11

Yesterday, I spent some time reflecting about September 11th. In thinking back to six years ago when that tragic day occurred, I can remember so vividly where we were and what was going on. We were actually on a trip to California for a vacation. Savannah was 3 and Whitney was 6 months old. I can remember that I had done Priceline and gotten up 5-Star hotels for our entire trip for a very good price. We had a rental car that had a problem and they upgraded up to a mini-van. Our trip was going so well. We were at our nice hotel near the LAX airport and my husband realized that he needed to change his voicemail to announce that he was out of the office. When he called his work number (He worked for Pricewaterhouse Coopers at the time) there was an automated message saying the the office was closed due to heightened security reasons. He knew something was going on, so we turned on the TV. We were shocked to see the World Trade Center burning. We watched in horror as we saw the 2nd plane hit. Compounding our horrified thoughts was the fact that we had left our home without giving our relatives an itinerary, we started trying to call our family, and the phone lines were too full, and you couldn't get through. It was a sick feeling to be so far away from home and to be there watching those buildings fall to the ground on TV. We were thankful that we had our little family all there together. The girls were oblivious to what was happening and after watching for a bit, we decided to turn off the TV and not watch all of the news reports in case it would be upsetting to Savannah. We had plans to go to Chuck E. Cheese that night. I had feelings of guilt of being on vacation while our country was in such turmoil, but we figured that a trip to CEC would be good for our kids and for us. It was an eerie feeling leaving the hotel. There were people all in the huge lobby watching televisions that had been brought in. They stood there with stoic faces as they watched and read the screen. People looked distraught. You could here people on their phones trying to make arrangements for travel. As we exited the hotel, we could see planes literally parked at LAX. It was an extraordinary site. We went to Chuck E. Cheese. The adults were very subdued as the children played without a care in the world. We, adults, just kind of looked at each other and without words we communicated our sorrow. We went to bed that night with heavy hearts and I remember praying for the families that had lost loved ones. We visited a furniture manufacturer the next day that was the company that had made our bedroom furniture. My thoughts were on the people that were missing, the families that had lost loved ones and all of the people traumatized by 9/11 . We spent a few days at Disneyland. I continued with my guilty feelings of being on vacation when out country was probably headed into war and the fear of another attack was looming! We didn't watch television and hear all of the sad, sad, stories of loss. I think the Lord protected me from a lot of the emotional strain of 9/11. The airports were all up and running on the day that we were to return home. I remember how solemn the atmosphere was at the airport. There were uniformed police officers stationed throughout the airport. We had to wait in a huge line to get into the airport and then we had to make our way through two security checks. I was looking at people, scrutinizing and half-way wondering if "that could be a terrorist" it was was sick and scary feeling. You didn't want to make eye-contact with people. It was hard to get on that plan with my two sweet, precious girls in hand....what if? I pondered on the way home on the plan about how the plane victims must have felt. I had bought a magazine at the airport and I was reading about the last minutes. I realized that the people knew that they were going down! How scary. I prayed a lot on that trip home. I can still feel those emotions that I had on that trip. That is a time in my life that I will never forget. I am thankful to live here in America and I am thankful for those people who sacrifice to protect us.