{ 10 Years Later: Remembering 9/11 }

That morning was beautiful. I woke up excited to celebrate my sister's 16th birthday. What should have been sweet 16 quickly became bittersweet. I was the first one up and I remember turning on the radio and hearing things I couldn't understand. What was happening? Words like attack and terror. I went and woke up my parents and my family gathered around the tv just in time to see the second plane hit. I just remember we were all very quiet, like we couldn't tell if what we were seeing was real. As the next few hours went by and we were able to put together what was happening, I remember feeling like life had changed for good somehow. We finally remembered to wish my sister a happy birthday and we tried to go on and make her day special. I still remember feeling angry that she would always share her special day, her sweet 16 with those horrible memories.

Over the next several days we watched the news almost constantly. It felt like we couldn't miss a thing. I remember the eerie silence of no planes overhead and the fear I'd never known of wondering if we'd be attacked again and where.

Little did I know in those following days that the man I would marry in 8 years was volunteering to join the war or that watching the efforts of our soldiers in the following months was a little of what he was experiencing. I didn't know that today, 10 years later I would bear a part in the healing from wounds of one kind or another that every soldier who faces war comes home with.

~One of Tim's pictures taken in Afghanistan~

On the anniversary yesterday, I felt like I had healed up so much from that day 10 years ago. I felt like being 10 years out really had made a difference, but then I also acknowledged I couldn't watch the commemoration ceremonies. I realized those emotions, the wounds from 10 years ago are still under the surface and in reality life just never will be the same again.

That day a lot of innocence was lost. Evil took on a very real face. But good triumphing over evil and the assurance that God is in control of this world no matter how bad things get, that protection and security comes from Him ultimately are lessons I have learned much better since that day. I am proud to be an American, but I'm so much more thankful to serve the God who has already won the victory!