How I love them.

I wasn't going to blog today. I was going to stay quiet and just be peaceful. But then we took these amazing pictures of the girls and had an amazing day together.

Today we stayed together as a family. I don't think that we've ever had so much time together in one day. From the second we woke up and stayed all together in one bed, playing for over an hour, until we huddled on the couch together tonight, we stayed together.  It was amazing and I think a great way to honor this day.

After breakfast we all loaded up in the swagger wagon (minivan) and headed downtown to the building where Damion works. His office is on the 54th floor in one of the downtown buildings. He needed to do some work and we decided to go with him. We briefly mentioned between ourselves that we were going into a skyscraper on  9/11 but didn't really worry about it, just had a passing thought.

Gorgeous huh? I love these girls.

The girls loved the view and the free juice. On the way home Princess Goofy told us that she wanted to go live at daddy's work so that she could ride the elevators and get juice, juice, juice, and juice.

We took the long way home, just enjoying the day.

We ate dinner as a family.

We played outside.

Then we sat down on the couch to watch a documentary about 9/11 that was on.

That's when my girls first understood parts of  9/11.

Apparently Princess Girly Girl heard something about people being trapped in the elevator. She told me that she would never go in an elevator again because she might get stuck and die.

Oh.. I thought my heart was going to break right there.

Next it was the buildings on fire and a million questions about why they were on fire. Why did the plane fly into the buildings?

Then Princess Goofy said, "and the police men and fire chiefs are going into the building to help the people. They will save them."

Then the building fell.

Then we had a conversation about why people would fly into a building, about the evilness of some people's hearts.

It was all I could to hold it together.

I want my kids to know innocence.

I love how free juice makes their day, how they call firemen "fire chiefs", how they know that policemen are there to help,  how they think their daddy is a super hero because he works so high up in the air, how they love us, how I love them.

When you woke up today.....

Many years ago when my mom was telling me about her memories on the day that JFK was assassinated she told me, "You will never have an experience in your lifetime that you will remember as clearly as I remember the day JFK was killed." We had no idea that years later terrorists would attack America using airplanes.

I remember that day so clearly. I had the flu and was asleep on the couch when my dad received a call telling him to turn on the TV and watch. He woke me up and together we watched as they talked about the plane going into the first tower. A few minutes later as he was getting dressed, I watched the other plane go into the second tower and called him to come see. My dad went onto work that day but I stayed home on the couch and watched the news coverage nonstop. There were prayer rallies popping up all over our small town that I couldn't attend because I will sick. It was such a sad day with worries of more attacks to come. Later it became clear that the pentagon being hit and the plane landing in the field were also parts of this evil plot. My dad and I watched President Bush address the nation that night together. His speech was respectful yet uplifting. That night I received and email from this guy that I had a huge crush on. The first line of it started with, "when you woke up today, did you know that something like this would happen?". Weeks later I went on my first date with this guy. In November we will celebrate our 6th wedding anniversary.

The world changed that day. People flocked to churches. Some stayed there, others never went back again. People wearing head scarves were stared down in public for years, security no longer a privilege in America. Horrible things happened that day but there was some good. Love was starting to grow that day and it continued to grow. For some if just meant banding together in support, for others it meant that their future spouse was already starting to lead and guide them.

I am blessed with my Royal Highness.