I can remember: Virginia Family Photographer

I can remember the phone call early in the morning.  It was my husband calling to tell me to turn on the t.v. immediately.  He said: “I think America is under attack.  I can’t believe this.”  I thought he was joking, but then why would he be joking about that?  I couldn’t believe what I was hearing.  I turned on CNN and there it was, the first tower of the World Trade Center on fire.  I was not sure what this meant and what was happening and then it happened, another plane struck the second tower and I saw it happen.  No way!

It was upsetting and confusing that something like this could be happening in America.  I thought to myself, “Who would have the audacity to attack our country in such a senseless act of recklessness?”  I was on the east coast and my family is out in Seattle.  Without hesitating I called my parents and told them to turn on the t.v. and although they were tired, they were also in shock and disbelief.  I can remember taking pictures of the television screen because I just couldn’t comprehend what I was seeing.

After marinating in the fact that we were under attack I felt so restless and helpless that I decided to take my then 2 year-old outside for a walk.  When I went outside there were neighbors mowing their lawn and walking their dogs as if nothing was happening.  I wanted to run up to them and shout, “Hey, we’re under attack!!”  All the while, airplanes were coming into Dulles one after the other.  I remember a distinct feeling like I must be in the twilight zone.  I looked at everything around me and took in every aspect of my environment, the smells, the scenes, and I realized that this was real.

As I looked down at my growing belly, I realized that my soon to be born son would enter a world where sometimes others hate us for what we stand for.  And those very American values I love and live by, others despise because they don’t have it themselves and they have know way of conceptualizing what it is to be an American.  Not only that, but we would leave for Jordan, right in the heart of the Middle East, just a few months after the attack.

I left the US with a heavy heart and an open mind hoping that the people that bombed the world trade center were nothing like the people I would meet in the Middle East.  While it was hard to understand why these people were motivated to hurt the US, I was gratefully surprised that the Arabs living in Jordan, welcomed us into their hearts and their homes.  Even though the terrorists that attacked our country were awful and despicable, I could not generalize a culture and stigmatize them in my own mind.  To this day, I am extremely grateful for those Jordanians that opened their doors to us and proved to us that love can be found anywhere in the world.

And what did September 11th teach me?  It taught me to never take for granted each and every day.  To value those closest to us.  To cherish those relationships that are worth keeping.  To always say I love you to your children and husband.  I feel so sorry for those that lost their lives on that fateful day.  I look at my children everyday with gratitude in my heart that we are all still here, taking this journey through life together.