Carmen update: Carmen is still having some blood in her feeding tube and will start a month of Carafate. Hopefully this drug will heal her stomach.
Remember Betty Short’s prayer request for the little boy with the cleft palette and lip? Finn was born September 4th and is very healthy otherwise. Thank you for praying for this sweet baby.
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We can all remember where we were and what we were doing eight years ago today. I was at a Bible study with my good friend and neighbor, Christina (I think it was a Beth Moore study but I can’t remember that part!). Someone came in and told our group that planes had hit the Twin Towers and they were gone. I remember thinking that was the most ridiculous thing I had ever heard. How in the world can two 110 story buildings be gone? I could only imagine them falling over side-ways and that made no sense. Then someone came in and told us the Pentagon had been hit. Several of the ladies had husbands who worked at the Pentagon so our study was stopped abruptly.
Christina drove us home and unfortunately neither one of us had a TV. We went to a neighbor’s house to watch footage of the attacks. It was so surreal.
Dave was in England on a work project. He had flown out of Dulles in Virginia the night before. We couldn’t get in touch with each other because all the phone lines were tied up but I think eventually his brother or mom called to check on me.
The previous summer Dave had been on a work project in Manhattan and we had often stayed in the World Trade Center Marriott. We moved around from hotel to hotel in Manhattan so we could enjoy different parts of the city but the World Trade Center Marriott was our favorite (great gym overlooking the Hudson and great breakfast buffet). We often ate at restaurants near the Towers. We ate our first Thai food at the Lemongrass Grill, which was across the street. I spent a lot of time near the Towers walking around and I remember often buying plums from a street vendor who set up between the Towers.
This morning I mentioned to Lauren that today is September 11th, a very sad and important day for the United States. I told her that some men wanted to hurt our country and flew planes into buildings and the buildings caught on fire and fell down. Lauren asked, “Was the lady in that building?” I asked, “What lady?” Lauren said, “You know, the one who got burned. The one named Lauren.”
While I was pregnant with Lauren, I read the book Love, Greg and Lauren. Lauren Manning was in the lobby of Tower One when a fireball exploded from the elevator shaft. She was burned over 82.5% of her body. Greg, her husband, wrote emails updating on his wife’s condition and later those emails were published as a book. Miraculously, Lauren survived. This book is a testament to Lauren’s strength and Greg’s devotion and love.
We had always loved the name Lauren, but after reading about this courageous woman, we decided to name our daughter Lauren.
What were you doing on 9/11?
Thanks for sharing. Wow, I’ve never heard of that book. I’m going to look for it. I love Karen Kingsbury’s book One Tuesday Morning, from her 9-11 series.
I was looking through some old papers the other day and I mentioned to Joe that my parents had filled out some questionaires for our kids when they were in middle school. One of the questions was…What was the most influential thing that has happened in your lifetime. Of course, their answer was WWII. I told him that I was thinking about it and I thought that JFK’s assasination was probably the thing I remember most as being a shocking, defining moment. How could I have put 9-11 out of my mind….I don’t know, but I guess there’s a tie. IF and WHEN I ever have any grandkids, I’ll have to answer with two horrendous memories. And then there was the space shuttle, too. Has our life been filled with more than it’s share of tragedy?
I was then, as I am today, watching children and teaching them to be kind to one another.
Love ya, Janet
I vivedly remember spending that morning with you as well, Lana. One thing you didn’t mention was the false report that someone gave us (before the Pentagon news) which said that the Capital building had been hit as well. I was devastated to hear that, and so relieved when we found out it wasn’t true. Having never been to NYC, I wasn’t familiar with the World Trade Center, but when we finally got to watch the news I was stunned! I don’t know which was more shocking – that two 110 story buildings collapsed, or that a group of people would coordinate such a horrific attack to terrorize Americans. Watching the footage was surreal, and I admit that I was blindsided by the hatred and evil that exist in the world. I will always remember the space shuttle explosion as well, but that was just an accident. The planned attacks on 9-11-01 opened our eyes to an evil that most of us would never have imagined. Even today, 8 years later, I completely stop in my tracks when I hear an airplane flying unusually low. I pause and wait to hear if it is going to crash.
The Lord protected thousands of people on 9-11-01, and He has protected Americans from numerous other thwarted attacks since then. I fear that there will be other terrible tragedies to come though because America’s leadership seems to be ignoring the statements made by Iran’s leadership which clearly state that they don’t simply want to terrorize American (and Israeli) cities – they want to annihilate them. And it sounds like they are dangerously close to being able to accomplish their murderous mission. How scary!
If there was ever a time to turn our hearts to the Lord and trust Him with our lives and our future, it is now.
Hi Christina, did I get the details right? You probably remember better than me! I don’t remember the false report about the Capital although I do remember people being worried about buildings all over the U.S.
Call me sometime! I want to hear about your big move!
I was at work and engrossed in something and ignored the phone until I saw it was my mother on the ID. I picked it up and she told me. I thought it was some sort of mistake. I came out of my office and no-one was milling around in the cubicles or talking. In fact, no-one was to be seen at all. I went looking for everyone and ended up in the main conference room where everyone was watching CNN. I think we all just stared with our mouths hanging open, I wasn’t really sure what had happened since the video of the first plane wasn’t available then. Then they showed the video of the second plane and we all collectively just jumped. It was like 30 people simultaneously electrocuted. There was a woman sobbing in the back, I went to talk to her. She was Bosnian and had survived the wars in Sarejevo ten years before, when she was a teenager. She had escaped to Sweden and then to the US and, for her, it seemed as though the war had come to her home of safety. She was reliving it and she was terrified.
We turned around in time to see the first building fall. Sighs of horror emanated in the room. The girl I had been talking to ran out. I just said to myself that I thought I had just witnessed the death of 5,000 people (that’s what they were estimating were in each building) and I had to leave as well. I don’t remember crying, I remember feeling as though I couldn’t breathe and being shocked, deeply shocked. Work just stopped, essentially, for the rest of the day.
Later that week my peer in our New York office was talking to me when he suddenly burst into tears. I asked him if he was ok, and he said the wind had shifted and the smell of the smoke from WTC was in his office.
As Lana mentioned, I was in England on 9/11. I was sitting at my desk at work when a colleague told me that a plane had run into one of the towers. I immediately thought of something small like a Cesna. Curious, I opened a web browser to see if there were pictures yet, only to find that none of the major news sites worked. The sites were bombarded with so much traffic that they all went down.
Fortunately, or unfortunately, there was a small television on the floor and people started gathering around it. I casually walked over to see what they were looking at and was surprised to see Tower One on fire.
The details after that are fuzzy in my mind but I found myself back at my desk when that same colleague told me that the other tower had been hit. I quickly went over to the TV, right as the first tower fell to the ground.
Stunned, I went back to my desk yet again and stared blankly at my computer for what seemed like eternity.
I tried calling Lana but couldn’t get through. Eventually, we were able to get a hold of each other and traded stories for quite awhile.
Thank you for this opportunity to recall and speak it out, again. I was at work in the accounting dept at the local bank. My position took charge of the daily balancing of the cash flow and handling all the wire transfers. The routine call came from the branches and they told us of the NYC tragedy…. First plane hitting. As we were on the phone, I turned on the radio next to me and we all shook as the second plane hit. Having read Tom Clancy’s books, as so many had before that day, it was obvious that the financial districts of NYC were one of the targets there. The Pentagon and the aim for DC was not unfamiliar, after Clancy’s descriptions, either. And, I just dug in for the full day’s tasks. So many in other, less volatile, depts of the bank were hoping to end work and head home. There was no way those evil attackers were going to stop me from making the investments, or settling the bank or completing the transfers that were needed from our spot in the nation. I would have driven to NYC to accomplish the task, if necessary. I was so determined that THEY were not going to stop us. As only God could have orchestrated it, the bank neither needed to invest nor redeem…. we were balanced and no transfers needed to be made. Through it all we gathered around my computer screen to keep connected to what the people in NYC had to endure. Like Allison, I didn’t cry either. But, for weeks and weeks I couldn’t help but keep watching the TV channels that continually broadcasted from the site. I began to wonder what I was going through in my mind, that caused me to constantly watch. Perhaps it was shock, or attempts to comprehend, or just hope. We had a very dear friend who worked in the vicinity of the towers and had to escape via the Hudson River ferry, after running and running through the ash and smoke and dust. There was another man, a cousin to my nephews, who grew up in this area of Upstate NY and was on the upper floors of one of the towers. He escaped and has the memory of the most awful experience. And, I was determined that the attackers would NEVER take us down as I persisted to finish the work of the only financial facility I knew.
YHWH is so faithful and full of love. Eight years later a dear friend of my daughter just learned that her little baby in her womb for nine months and due to be born next Wednesday has passed away before breathing fresh air. We go on and continue living here. Looking forward to the time when we can rejoice and sing Holy, Holy, Holy to our Beloved Redeemer. He’s the God of yesterday, today and forever. Hallelujah!
I was on the roof of a new building training the maintenance staff on the new H.V.A.C. equiptment we had installed.I am kind of forgetting exactly but I think that is right.
I was sitting on the couch watching t.v, hubby and I had just stepped away form the t.v. Hubby got a phone call about what had just happened, we went back top the t.v, I watched the second plane hit the tower. Hubby was on the phone, he was being deployed to the twin towers. He is a firefighter and was part of MATF1. That day was and always will be very sad and scarey to me. I was so sad for everyone who lost their lives. And very scared that hubby was leaving to go to NY. But I knew their were others out there that needed him more than I did at this time. We will always pray for everyone that lost a love one that day. Tammy
I was teaching middle school at the time and was just leaving a team meeting. By the time my students came in about 10 minutes later, they were all abuzz with the news (8th graders). As a team, we decided NOT to turn on our TVs in order to give time to our parents to process the information. Parent after parent came to the school to get their child and bring them home. I read a book written by the wife of a man who was on the Pentagon-headed plane. Very, very inspiring and I still get teary-eyed when I think of all that was lost that day.
I was sitting in my office when Wes called to tell me what was on the news. He kept me updated since our school satellite was down and we could only get very fuzzy news coverage. Later in the day I got a desperate email from David (in England) that sounded quite frantic since he couldn’t get in touch with Lana – who was outside D.C. at that time. I don’t remember which of you kids called asking where I was, since I had taken students on NYC trips where we went up to the top of the World Trade Center.
I remember it being a time where families connected and drew each other closer – knowing we never know if we will see our loved ones again.
I remember flags everywhere and the pictures that burned our hearts – - Looking back, it makes me realize how this terrible time drew us together as a country – -
I also remember some of our young students worrying that terrorists might come to harm us – and trying to reassure them that we were not likely to be a target in our unpopulated area – -
P.S. Love, Greg and Lauren will definitely make you cry but you will admire this wonderful couple and pray for them and their young child -
I walked into building 4 of the Skyview Unit of Texas Department of Criminal Justice where a group of prisoners were sitting in front of the television. One of them turned to me and told me that the first plane has hit. I sat down with him and watched. Just a little after I began to watch I saw the second plane hit. That was surreal! We had thought the first plane could have been an accident but when a second one hit we knew something much worse was happening. I stayed there watching with the prisoners most of the morning and then went to a coworkers office to watch off and on the rest of the day. I did take a break soon after the second plane hit to try to call and check on Dave and Lana. I can’t remember when I finally got them but it must have been later since Lana was at a Bible study.
I had difficulty dealing with one of the delusional prisoners because he was sure that he had somehow caused this to happen and went into a rather serious psychotic episode.