Whenever September 11th comes around, everyone always says "never forget" and I think to myself, "is it even possible to forget?". There are certain things about that day that I would love to forget. I would love to forget the anger, the sadness, the images of so many people trapped and dying. I would love to forget the feeling of fear and hopelessness. I would love to forget that so many women lost their husbands, men lost their wives, mothers and fathers lost their sons and daughters, children lost their parents, and so many lost their lives.
I remember that day like it was yesterday. I was 8 1/2 months pregnant with Kylee and was working 12 hour night shifts and so when I got home that morning I of course climbed right into bed and turned on the TV. I saw the first tower was burning and thought "holy cow, what happened?". Then, as I was sitting there the second plane hit and I was in shock. It was obvious that there was no way that was an accident. I couldn't believe what I was seeing. What was happening? Why was it happening? How could this be happening? I just sat there rocking back and forth, holding my very pregnant belly with tears streaming down my face. I just stared at my belly with my sweet baby in there and cried, saying to myself "How could I be so selfish?! How could I bring a child into this world when there were so many horrible things happening? How could I choose to bring her into this world where hundreds of innocent people were being murdered?" I cried for what felt like hours (but was probably just a few minutes) and then I felt a wave of peace wash over me and then the thought entered my head that said "This child could change the world. She could help bring peace and tolerance to those around her. It would be more selfish to not bring her into this world." With tears still streaming down my face, I suddenly had hope. Hope that the world could be a better place.
So, on September 11th, when I say that I will never forget, what I mean is that I will never forget that there is always hope for a better world.
Wow, that's a neat testament that you have great kids that will accomplish great things!
ReplyDeleteI remember on September 11th I was on my way to work about 3 weeks into my very first teaching job when I heard about the attacks on the radio. It was very hard to try to explain things to a class full of 8 year olds and try to answer their questions when there was no good explanation as to why it had happened.