Ten Years Ago

9/11/01...We had just moved into our apartment in Baytown, TX at 10PM the night before for a new position at FBC Baytown. Went to Walmart to get cleaning supplies around 9AM. Heard on the radio that the WTC had been hit by a plane. I was thinking about the one in Dallas. We watched on the Walmart TVs everything happen & were in shock. PP's first day on the job was counseling people who were scared out of their minds. One of my student's grandmother went down on one of the other flights.

I remember being so freaked out that we were totally away from our friends, comforts of home and anything we knew to be "normal" and were now in this town by the bay filled with gas and oil refineries that served the whole world.  Exxon was in our back yard basically.  We could look out our apartment balcony and see the gorgeous walk in pool with water-fall & tropical plants on one side and the HUGE fire stacks that constantly burn from the refinery towers on the other.

My first thoughts were that we were going to be hit next because of the oil.  PP assured me that we were NOT going to be hit because of all the places in North America......the oil refineries were being guarded like crazy with fighter jets. Crazy talk.

Next came being GLUED to the television as each and every moment played out before our very eyes.

Next came the freakishly scary anthrax* scares with the deadly white powder being mailed across the country.  Bizarre.

Time really did stand still and more people turned to God for answers and comfort during that time.  Sadly, as time went on and life began to get back to some sort of normal then the church crown started dwindling.

This day is so weird.  Everyone seems to know someone who was effected by this tragedy in some way.  My father in law was on business in Florida and had to drive all night and more to get to us in Baytown for a place to sleep because his flight was canceled after all planes were grounded.  Long after the fact, I found out other stories of people I know who were actually right in the midst of it all in NYC.

I feel badly now that my friend and I just didn't have the time in our three day journey to NYC this past April to make it to Ground Zero*. I know that sounds crazy and lame, but we packed that trip to the fullest and made the best of our time, but I so wish that we would have gone to see the spot, especially now that it is 10 years later.  Back in April, I wasn't thinking about today.

We are so blessed to live in this country even with it's junky ways.  The good thing is that it is not our home either for us Believers.  We are not home yet.