Thursday, September 11, 2008

9/11--how to explain it?

We don't watch TV in our house in the morning. It's just too much. After I dropped the kids off at school, I went to pick up Ted so we could meet with our attorney. Chewie was with us and charmed everyone, of course. After that, I picked up Rauan from school and he starts telling me about a plane flew into a building and the principal wanted us to pray for them. And Rauan, being Rauan, started asking a million questions. I explained it to him best I could and also tried to bring our faith into it as far as that we pray for everyone so that God helps them find a good path and we ask God to forgive them. It's hard in some ways because Rauan is Kazakh and the majority of native Kaz are Islamic. I know that that might come up in the future and how do we explain it? Madison, as a whole, I think is more tolerate then most--but what do you say that just a few radicals caused this horrible tragedy. And, in my personal opinion, it's not a religious reason, it's a power reason. Religion isn't(or shouldn't) be about power--it should be about love, gentleness, forgiveness and treating your fellow human (and all God's creatures) considerately. It's hard. Rauan is so intelligent and asked questions that I simply couldn't answer-the biggest one being "why?"
I saw this on Elizabeth's blog. For me since 9/11 life sure has changed. At the time we suspected, but did not know about the infertility. Little did I know that in a little over a year's time, we would be in the paper chasing for a baby from Russia and I would be attempting to conquer my fear of flying. Little did I know that so I would be gobbling up information on clefts and amniotic banding. Little did I know that I would leave the field of dialysis and enter into the wonderful world of pediatrics. Nor did I know that my father's lymphoma would come out of remission and in July of 2007 we would be sending him home to God. Nor did I know that I would be travelling to two different countries I had never heard of and bring home 2 wonderful little boys (who are currently napping!!). Little did I suspect I would become a hockey mom and a figure skating mom and start to plan my life around sports. That one I never would have guess!!! Seven years. Seven years and I still live in the same house and I'm still married to my best friend who I love more then ever. Seven years and the family of 2 (plus furbabies) became the family of 5--still with furbabies. 9/11. A day full of tears for the loss of life and a belief that we were immune but also a day to rejoice in the wonderful changes in our lives.
On another note--cheaper to replace the dishwasher then to repair it. Thank goodness--no interest for 18 months at American TV! Yeah--this family of 5--that likes to eat well!!--needs a dishwasher. Ok it's really time for me to go back to work. I'm home, things break. What's that all about???
Hug your families!

2 comments:

Elizabeth and Bill said...

I struggle with how to explain it as well. I have a 14 year old stepson and a 14 year old "little sister" and they don't remember 9/11 other than knowing their parents were sad. I on the other hand experienced it in person and will never forget the day and my experiences. I guess I can only liken it to previous generations who try to explain things to me and I'll never really understand what it was like when Pearl Harbor was bombed or when JFK was killed. I pray that this next generation will never have anything like 9/11 to explain to their children. Answering "Why?" is really hard when I am still trying to wrap my mind around it.

Mala said...

That was a horrible day. I had gotten up early to drop my husband off at the airport. I was at my office (yes, I had an office job back then.) when I saw the towers smoking on a TV in my boss's office. After hearing it was a plane, I did the math in my head and knew that my husband's plane would have been flying over NY at about the time that occured. I quickly called the airline and they told me they couldn't give me any information as to whether my husband's plane was involved.
At the time I had a strong suspicion that I was pregnant but I hadn't told him yet, not until I could confirm it.
The next couple hours were horribly surreal as I called his cell phone repeatedly, only to have it go to voicemail.
Finally he called, letting me know he was safe and they had made an emergency landing in North Carolina. The cockpit wouldn't tell them why they had to land immediately and all the people on their flight thought there was machnical issues with the plane and weren't sure if it was going to be a crash landing because all the flight staff, who had some information about what was going on, were obviously upset.