Tuesday's Blog Hop-Remembering 9/11....

For today's Blog Hop we're to share a story about 9/11 either where we were, about someone we know, or pictures.  Fortunately, I do not know anyone personally the passed away that terrible day 8 years ago.  Wow, eight years?  I can't believe it has been that long.  I remember that day like it was yesterday....

Vince and I had been married a year and I was still attending Trinity, so we were living in married housing on campus.  Every morning I would wake up and have my cereal while watching the Today show until I had to go to class.  I had an eight o'clock class that morning so I had left the apartment around 7:40ish (right around then is when it came on the news).  In my class several people were talking about how they had heard that a plane (and by plane we were under the impression it was a little passenger type plane) had run into one of the World Trade Center towers.  I remember talking to a friend and we both were thinking how silly that would be, wondering how anyone could accidentally hit such a large building and hoping that person was ok?  By the time I got home from class most of the devastation had started to unfold.  The second one had just been hit and talks of terrorism had begun to be considered.  I was just g.l.u.e.d. to the TV the rest of the day.  I couldn't believe my eyes as things unfolded.  Then it happened.  The first building collapsed.  I can not even describe what I was feeling.  It all felt very surreal.  Like a dream.  A very bad dream.  I felt afraid.  America lost its naive sense of indestructibility that day.  I called the hubs and he said a lot of companies in the area were sending people home and that there had been some possible threats to the The Sears tower.  What is going on?  Things like this don't happen here.  Yes, we see it on the news every night but in my home city?!  Seeing footage of people fleeing the Sears Tower and most of Chicago's skyscrapers ran chills down me.  The usual bustling city was eerily deserted.  Unfortunately, the hub's office did not send employees home.  Although I knew it was very unlikely that terrorist would target American Hotel Register Company I just needed to know he was home, safe and sound.  The world seemed to be crumbling around us.  I called my parents and talked to my dad, him and mom were feeling the same things I was.  A couple hours into this nightmare an anchor mentioned the date and it hit me- it was dad's birthday!  I called him again and apologized I hadn't said happy birthday when we talked early.  He said it wasn't much of a day for celebration.  Soon classes were cancelled so all I could do was sit and watch this nightmare on TV, that was actually our new reality.

One of the blessings of that day was that I was on the campus of a Christian university.  Classes were cancelled but they opened the chapel up for everyone just to gather, pray, comfort, and sing together.  We clung to the only, and clearly proven that day, thing that is indestructible in our lives.  Jesus Christ.  The world changed that day, America changed that day, and we'll never be the same.  

Another very vivid memory for me was the first time we heard an airplane again after air traffic resumed.  I remember the hubs and I went outside just to watch it.  I still, to this day, if I see a plane flying a little low and hear a plane roar extra close, shudder just a bit.  Our innocence was taken that day.

Although I will say at least one good thing came from that day.  My grandpa and father had always instilled a sense of American pride in me but to see the way Americans clung to one another and united in strength and spirit was awe inspiring, it's just unfortunate it took such a tragedy to bring it out in us.

Our love and prayers go to those who lost someone and/or were hurt themselves on that tragic day 8 years ago.

May the anniversary of 9/11 renew your sense of pride for our country and remind you what being the UNITED States of America means and what a blessing living in this country really is.