Remembering 9/11

I know we are all remembering what happened 7 years ago. We all know where we were - what we did - what we felt. For me - it's weird - just the night before I was writing in Cole's baby book and filling in all those blanks - you know, how much gas cost, who the President was, etc. I remember telling Jason how lucky it is that Cole won't have one of 'those dates' - those dates where you remember exactly where you are when something terrible happened. I thought about the shuttle (The Challenger) and that terrible day. And I mentioned to Jason how I remember sitting in study hall at John Carroll and someone came on over the intercom to tell us what happened. We were so sad. Back to the 11th - even though Cole was only 7 months old, now we have one of those days. I hope as he continues through school he'll learn about that day and what happened and why we are all so lucky to be here, to be alive and to be Americans. It's not something we've educated him about as his comprehension just isn't ready for that. One day, though, he'll understand.

I remember waking Jason up after seeing Katie Couric talk about the first plan - the only one at that point. I had been giving Cole his bottle and just flipping to the news. He immediately said something about suicide bombers and some guy named Ben Laden. I didn't know what a suicide bomber was or who Ben Laden was. Ben Laden? It was much later in the day after watching the news all day long that I realized it was Bin not Ben - I wasn't very up on the news - can you tell? I mean my day consisted of taking care of my baby boy. We watched as the second plane flew into the other tower. We starting making phone calls - Jason to his mom and brother and me to my mom and dad. My brother in law is a flight attendant for United. We had to find out where he was - and quickly. He flies so much, we don't know where he is at even given time - of course, my brother does - so we found out he was fine - but he knew the other attendants on those flights. He lost friends.

I remember packing up Cole's stuff for the day and heading to Saraland to just sit at Jason's mom's house with her. I couldn't imagine being home by myself. Jason had to go to work and took a small tv with him so they could keep up with the news. I remember going to one of the local Catholic churches to attend a memorial service the following Friday night. I remember wondering what the future would hold.

Who knew that we would still be losing lives over this? Who knew that George W. Bush would face such obstacles during his terms as President? You know you hear so many terrible things - people talking so badly about our President and what a terrible state we are in. Do you even wonder what could have happened had 9/11 not taken place - or had we had a different President? Wow, that's a bit scary.

The thing that gets me is Fox News just said that McCain and Obama have put a halt to their campaigning commercials that are so terrible - you know, where they bash each other - they aren't playing them today. I mean, seriously? Today is important enough for them to skip them - but why do they even exist? That's another story though right?

I'm listening to David Beamer talk about his son Todd - he was on Flight 93 and mentioned those two words "Let's Roll" and helped stop that flight from heading to it's original destination. I bought his wife's book Let's Roll - it was an amazing story. I read it on the first anniversary of 9/11. I had forgotten until now that Lisa Beamer was pregnant at the time. That sweet baby has no idea.............

If you haven't read it - get it - it's such a heart warming story. At the time I couldn't understand the faith this family had - that Lisa Beamer had - the faith that even though she had lost her husband, her God was going to take care of her. At that point in time, my faith had never been tested in this way. I just couldn't imagine. A few years later, our faith was tested when Cole was diagnosed with cancer. And I got it - I knew God was taking care of Cole and us. It's amazing that you just know when you need to know. You know that God is there. For me, I never questioned that He would be there - but I wasn't sure why we were so special. What had I ever done to make me worthy of God looking out for me? I wasn't the best church attender or even the best prayer or any of that. But He was there. I know what we experienced with Cole is no where near the feelings that this families went through, losing their loved ones. But now that I've felt that comfort - the weight lifted off my shoulders - at least I have some idea of what it may have been like for those families - the ones that had faith when they had nothing else.

This morning I got in the car to take Cole to school and turned on Rick and Bubba - but almost hit the CD button - I'm quite addicted to Matt Nathanson these days - and realized they were replaying their morning on the show 7 years ago. So sorry, Matt - 9/11 morning show trumped your beautiful voice. It was amazing to listen to them - and remember it all.

I hope you remember today too - remember those that we lost, remember those that saved other's lives, remember that our troops are still fighting. Think about that when you cast your vote for President. We need to continue to fight this fight - not pick someone who won't do that for us.

Lisa