Life Changer

It was dark, cool and oh so quiet that morning 12 years ago today but it so changed all of our lives! I was riding my exercise bike, listening to my radio, while my youngest son was sleeping soundly in his bed in the next room. My husband was away on a hunting trip to Montana. My other sons were safe in their own homes. All was right in our world. Then an excited, baffled newsman reported that an airplane had struck the World Trade Center in New York City! How terrible!  It must be some horrible accident...And then another struck. This was totally unbelievable! In minutes the Pentagon  in Washington, DC was struck and lights began to come on in all of our heads! This wasn't a horrible accident! The United States of America was under attack! I woke my son. We went upstairs and turned on the TV. We sat watching in shock with the rest of the nation as the events of that day played out. I was at school before Todd Beamer said to his fellow passengers on Flight 93, "Let's Roll" and the next plane hit Earth in Shanksville, Pennsylvania! But those unthinkable acts happened so far from home. They were beyond belief but they wouldn't touch us in far off rural Nevada!

How very wrong was my thinking!! Nothing was ever to be the same again in our sleepy little world. Soon after that day in September my son applied and was accepted to West Point Military Academy. Another of my sons enlisted in the US Marine Corps and went to OCS at Quantico, Virginia! Both sons have since been in the war zones and other undesirable spots of the world, not once but several times in their careers protecting our precious nation. We have along the way met other amazing brave young men and women who also heard our country's call and felt it was important enough to put their lives on the line to defend her! These young people and their families and loved ones continue sacrificing every day these 12 years since to keep us safe.

And so 'tis said that every cloud has its silver lining. This idiom has proven true this time as well. For out of the ashes of that September day we have brave sons of whom we are incredibly proud. They have each chosen beautiful, competent women for wives, who like themselves had chosen to join the military and were in "the right place at the right time"!! Another blessing ... a darling grand daughter has joined our family.

Thankfully the sun still rises over this beautiful land and God is still in control!