Where were you...

… on that life changing day?

We were living in Oklahoma on an Air Force Base at the time.  I was actually driving to work at a small law firm when the radio was interrupted with the news of a plane crashing into the north tower.  The news caster (who was just the regular DJ) was very confused and didn’t really know what was going on.  As soon as I walked into the office, I headed to the conference room that held the only television in the building (we didn’t have internet yet).  Most of the people in the building spent the majority of the day in and out of the conference room watching the news as events transpired.  Though young (a couple months shy of 21), I knew that this day had the potential to change so much for this country.

It was several hours later when I finally got in touch with Michael. He was fine and everything in his group was kind of at a standstill – waiting to see if they’d be needed somewhere.  He told me the base was in Delta protection mode and they were only letting people on base who lived there or were necessary personnel.  I left work early and made the 8 mile drive to wait in a 2 hour long line to get on base.  Each car was being searched thoroughly, inside and out and each person and their belongings were being searched.

It’s interesting to look back at myself ten years ago and see how young (just married a year and a half prior and Michael had only been in the USAF for a little over a year) and naive I was to the idea of terrorism.

Michael celebrated 11 years in the USAF this year, we now have 3 kids and have lived several different places since.  However, as a result of 9/11, he has been deployed several times (still, I count my blessings and know that it could always be worse) and we’re gearing up for another one in just a couple of months. Knowing that our children know nothing other than a country at war (Jacob was born in 2004) and that daddy has to go off to far away places because of that, catches my breath at times.

As always, I pray for this country and our leaders.  I pray that this country would heed God’s call to us and be on it’s knees for direction in accomplishing His will.

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