Today on September 11th, 2013 I wanted to share something with you that will hopefully help you pause and remember this significant day in our history.
I plan on using mine in my project life album, if nothing else my children will ask what this is about and we will talk about it. It is designed to "float" in the pocket and I love the simplicity of that. As I was making this cut file I was thinking about OUR story around 9/11.
I will never forget exactly how I felt as I was watching the news with our family that day. Just days before 9/11 Jonathan and I were in the final steps of him joining the military. We felt a strong sense before 9/11 that this was the next step for us, and everything we asked for (Jonathan to work with the church in the army and also be airborne had also fallen into place) as we watch that days events unfold I knew that choice was about to look a whole lot different than it did 24 hours ago. Through prayer and honestly, just first gut response Jonathan felt stronger than ever that this was just that much more confirmation that we were making the right choice. It was a time that this country was proud of their military, and I was very proud of him. Then on 9/13 I found out we were pregnant with our first daughter Jaden, although we were trying to get pregnant in the months leading up to this, we never thought that THIS was the time. Even though it was such an emotional time, I know looking back now that I wouldn't have done anything different. So just weeks pregnant I sent my husband off to basic training in October, only to see him again in May days before my due date. So much had changed, he had changed from what he had been through, I had gone through my first pregnancy alone and our country was mourning, and on the verge of war.
I know our story is so small surrounding the days before and after 911 compared to so many, but I will never forget how much that day shaped our world, our country and our little family.
Where were you?
xox
Thank you! Thanks for the cut file, thank you for sharing your story, and thank you & your husband for your service to our country and our Lord. ((hugs))
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing this Shanna :) I, too, was sending my first husband off to the Navy when this tragic day occurred and I found out I was pregnant a month later. My first son was born nine months later...to the day... who would've thought our stories were so similar :) I know exactly how you felt. I wouldn't have change a thing either. BIG HUGS!!!!!!
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing Shanna and for your husband's and you and your family's sacrifices for our country and our freedom.
ReplyDeleteThe short version.
I was really pregnant with my youngest son and my DH actually had flown across country the morning before 9/11. I was actually driving down a hwy in NC FL on my way to work. It was a beautiful day driving through the rolling hills of horse country near Ocala and I was just saying a silent prayer, thanking God for the gift of the beautiful day when I hear the radio announcer break in to say a commercial plane had just hit the WTC. I knew that there was no way a plane of that size would be allowed to fly in that urban area and my gut just told me this was pure evil that had just taken action. I knew our lives, our America, would never be the same after what had just taken place. And it hasn't. We have moved forward but we have not forgotten to look back. To remember. To never forget.
My DH had also had just been visiting the Pentagon the Friday before.
What a beautiful story. So interesting to hear how people found out. Where they were. What they were doing. I was just freshly in the military learning to be a jet engine mechanic. We were taking down the gearbox. Once they told us what happened it was hard to concentrate. One of the members of our team had family in New York. I remember seeing the news replaying the events. It looked fake. Like something out of a movie. We will NEVER forget.
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing your story Shanna. And the cut file, it's perfect!
oh and i adore your new blog header! ink splatter love forever.
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing Shanna, the cut file is so awesome and your story, how touching! (You're going to make this preggo cry! haha) I'll never forget that morning, I live in Alberta, Canada and grew up in the country. It was a crazy morning, running late for work, sun was shining, arrived at the Auxillary Hospital at 6:50am where I worked and started out on a, what i thought was going to be a normal day. At 7:30 went into one of my favorite residents rooms, Bud, to help him get out of bed and ready for the day. Bud loved TV and normally in the morning it was way to busy to have his TV on but he begged and I gave in. Only to see what I and everyone else thought was a movie, planes flying into the twin towers in New York! Bud knew something was wrong. He started going wild, grunting and throwing things (he could no longer talk)he managed to get a few choice words out! We were trying to calm him saying its ok Bud, it's just a show. Just then the front desk clerk made an announcement about the catastrophe and then followed a protocal to try to help keep residents calm. It was chaos, and we were no where near what was actually taking place.
ReplyDeleteI spent the next few days glued to the TV, sobbing. Terrified thinking that my mom would be moving in a few short weeks to the United Arab Emirates to work at an women's university to be closer to her husband who worked in Yemen. I knew that what had just taken place was going to forever change this world, our society, everything.
I love this! Unfortunately the cut file is no longer there. : (
ReplyDelete