Normal Tuesday morning. Marah was brand new and the boys were watching Blues Clues on Nickelodeon. My sister in law called. It was like 9am. I was nursing Marah. Julie was crying and kept saying she couldn't believe what had happened. I thought she was talking about the hit and run that had happened next to her daughters daycare the day before.
"Suzanne, do you know what happened in New York this morning? Have you turned on the TV?" she asked.
"Not to anything but Nick. What happened?"
"There's been a terrorist attack on US soil."
I literally dropped the phone, told the kids to go upstairs to play and turned the TV channel.
The towers began to fall just as the channel settled. If I hadn't been nursing I probably would have completely lost it. We had friends in New York. Friends in Manhattan. Friends who worked in that area. (Our friends were fine, although they had lost many friends in the attacks)
The whole scene was surreal. For 2 weeks every channel except disney and nick played footage of that attacks, the cleanup, the grieving. Why. Why? WHY!? There weren't any answers anywhere.
President Bush rallied the country and patriotism was high but everyone was scared. Our local Dams were closed. People began stocking supplies incase Grand Coulee Dam was targeted. Fear was everywhere and when we learned the terrorists were middle eastern, every turban, every caramel skin man was a threat, or at least we thought.
It was like we were walking thru life with our skin ripped off, everything hurt.
Slowly the country began to heal. Funerals of the fallen fight fighters & policemen. National days of mourning. National days of prayer. Watching at our congress and senate bowed their heads together in prayer for our country. Churches were flooded with people looking for answers but mostly for hope. HE is the source of all hope so the country was in a good place. Our biggest comfort came from our faith in GOD and believing that HE had a plan and a purpose. HE would take care of us, regardless of what came next.
Late night shows came back on the air. News slowly lost its grip on the networks. Baseball started again. Elections. World Series. Thanksgiving. Christmas. Each more solemn, more meaningful because of the huge gash in the nation.
April 2002 felt like victory as troops marched into Afghanistan. Bombs fell. Terrorist camps were destroyed and just as the new coverage that terrible September day, newscasters once again controlled the networks. We cheered! We cried. We remembered. We thought war would help but somehow it just made the gash in our hearts bigger.
After 10 years, 1000's of deaths either in the attacks or wars that followed, I've learned just a few things. Hold your babies tighter, tell the people you love that you love them, don't waste moments, walk in joy and trust what is true. GOD is the only source of any hope, joy or love and if we cling to Him no matter what happens, we'll be just fine.
