Teaching My Kids to Always Remember

This is the story I told my kids today:  9 years ago today I was doing laundry.  Daddy calls and says to turn on the news and I saw an airplane had just hit into a building.  No one was sure what happened but as we watched, a second airplane hit the next building over.  We knew it was no accident.

Everyone in those buildings were trying to get out quickly.  Firefighters and Policemen were rushing in to help.  Many people got out.  When all of a sudden, one of the buildings crashed!  Many people were still inside, mostly police and firemen.  Then the second building crashed killing more people. We couldn't believe what happened. 

Eventually, another airplane hit the Pentagon.  And one crashed in a field. 

Later we found out more of the story.  President Bush ordered no new planes were to leave the ground.  Pilots were told of the hijackings of the planes and secured their airplanes.  We will never know how many lives were saved that day by that decision and many others we do not know about.

But I want you to remember 2 things: 

There were many, many heroes that day.  Many people risked their own lives to help others live.  Firefighters and police officers.  But also regular people who made sure people were safe.  And that plane that crashed in the field?  We later found out it's because the people on the plane knew it was hijacked, that it was headed to kill lots of people on the ground and they knew they were going to die.  But the made sure to crash that plane where no one on the ground would be hurt. 

The other thing to remember is that ... many people died that day but it could have been much worse.  The pentagon ... the plane crashed in one of the few unoccupied sections.  The planes hit early in the day before everyone was at work.  The planes hit high so many got out.  It was the first day of school in New York so many people were late to work that day taking their kids to school.  And many, many other miracles. 

....

Then the kids asked where THEY were that day.  Jacob was 3, Kaley was almost 2.  And Sam ... I got a phone call about him that day.  He was born on August 31 so he was just 11 days old.  During the middle of this horrible, horrible day ... I got a call about a little baby needing a home.  I will never forget this day for many reasons. 

But mostly I choose to see the Heroes and the Miracles. 

God Bless America!!