Ten Years Ago...

Ten years ago today, I was at work, teaching fifth grade in a suburban Atlanta school. I walked my students to PE, and the PE teacher told me that a plane had hit the World Trade Center. I remember being shocked, my first thought being that my husband and I had been there just a little over a year before on our honeymoon. We only had a brief time in New York, so we didn’t stop at the Trade Center, but we did go right by there and made pictures. We had told each other we would go back one day and do the tour then...

Since that was my plan period, I stopped back by the library where several school staff members were watching the coverage on television. I watched in amazement at what I was seeing...the shock, the sick feeling in the pit of my stomach...I still remember. From there, I went to my classroom, grabbed my cell phone, walked into my co-worker’s classroom next door, and called my husband. He was working at home that day, preparing a sermon for a revival service he was preaching at our church that night. He had not heard the news and thought I meant that a small plane had run into the World Trade Center. Then he turned on the news...

I remember watching the towers fall...looking back, I’m thankful that I was on my plan period because I at least had time to begin processing what was going on before having to continue with my school day.

We were told not to tell our students what was going on, but that the school would be on lock-down. With all of the uncertainty and rumors going around, the lock-down was probably not a bad idea. Of course, trying to explain to a group of 5th graders that we had to have indoor recess on a beautiful day in September while trying not to seem overly worried about the events of the day was a challenge in itself. Minor in the grand scheme of things, but it was part of the reality of my day.

I was very thankful that we were in the midst of revival services at church that week...I can’t think of a more appropriate place for us to have been that evening.

The days after 9/11 were eerie...we lived at the time in a flight path for Hartsfield Airport. The sky around our house was never silent...until that day.

My in-laws were on a trip out of state...they had to deal with the logistics of getting back home.

Life changed for all of us in some way that day...

We will always remember...

Let us also remember that God is still on His throne and He still reigns!

Always...

(Photo from our trip to NYC in August 2000)