Where were you?

I was sitting in my living room recliner, holding my 2 1/2 year-old and 1 1/2year-old. All of us were watching Barn*y. There was nothing different about the day. We'd started our day early, as usual. We'd had breakfast and some play time. It was now time to cuddle together and watch one of our favorite shows. My home telephone rang.

It was my Mom, calling from work. She hadn't seen the news yet, but she and her co-workers had heard on the radio...  2 planes had struck the World Trade Center towers in NY.

Our regular scheduling of Barn*y had not been interrupted. So, I changed the channel.

The same horrific scenes that played and re-played on your TV screens were playing on mine.

My Mom and I stayed on the line together, as I described the scene I was seeing to her. Soon, the first tower fell, then the second.
Her office closed for the day and she came over my house, where we waited for my Dad and Dave. My Dad worked in a building on Penn. Ave., right in the heart of D.C. We knew that he could be right in the middle of the ensuing chaos and  traffic, trying to exit D.C. There was no way to get a hold of him. As we watched live news on the television, bumper to bumper traffic, people getting out and ducking behind their vehicles... fearful, as the last flights grounded at Reagan National or Dulles.... all we could do was pray for his safety.

He did return to us safely, as did my husband. But there were many families who did not experience that reunion that day. They went to bed that night knowing that their loved one would not be returning home. And they will go to bed again tonight, 10 years later, with that same knowledge.

No matter the lack of prayer being allowed in the ceremonies taking place in NY, I am praying for those families who lost loved ones ten years ago. I'm also praying for our country. Praying that somehow, some way, our leaders would acknowledge God again.

A couple weeks ago my boys and I had the honor to go and watch a parade of some 2000 motorcyclists, riding in remembrance of 9/11. They were getting ready to leave from one of their lunch stops when we found them. We were able to talk to several of the officers riding with the group and thank them for their service. Then, we watched and waved as all of them left. They were an amazing sight. The riders, and the amount of people who showed up in support of them, made me proud to be an American.