I remember where I was when 9-11 terrorist attack struck the twin towers. I was in my living room with a toddler. I was 7 months pregnant. I had awoken that morning to a very strange dream where men from the middle east were chasing me up an elevator in a very large tower with a matching elevator in another building next to where I was. He was chasing me because of my faith. In my dream, as I began to wake up that morning in September, I kept hearing the name Bin Laden. I really had never heard that name before except in passing really, so I tried to remember it. Even as I was waking from a deep sleep I knew it was important to remember that name. So, I said it over and over in my sleep even finding a name to associate it with - Dick Lauden from the Newhart Show. I woke up and began to pray. For whom? I did not know, but I knew someone needed prayer as I couldn't go back to sleep for quite sometime. I finally did drift back into sleep only to wake up a few hours later and plop my toddler in his high chair in front of an Elmo video so I could take a shower. When I went to rewind the Elmo video, however, there it was! There was the building in my dream. I felt as though I had just stepped out of that elevator as the images appeared on my television screen. I frantically stood to block the view from my little boy who was just learning the word airplane. I didn't want him to think that all airplanes ran into buildings. I put Elmo back on and got in the shower in shock.
Late Sunday night, I was once again in my living room. Only this time we were watching a late-night movie with the family. We were watching episodes of the old Get Smart TV show. We were watching this show as a real-life Get Smart action plan was being carried out by the United States Navy Seals.
This is history right before our eyes. The news came early Monday morning that Bin Laden is dead. After almost 10 years since the World Trade Towers attack on 9-11 of 2001, Bin Laden was found in a compound in Pakistan. He was killed by gun fire by United States Navy Seals and then buried at sea so as not to take the chance of having a shrine erected for the man known to be the leader of the Muslim terrorist group, Al Qaeda.
As my husband and I couldn't help but feel as if the 10-year hunt was successfully over, my 9 year old daughter innocently asked why American soldiers killed that man. She reminded us that Jesus tells us to pray for and forgive our enemies. So, now the task of explaining war was upon us as we explained that he had many chances to change his ways in that 10-year span but chose instead to pursue terrorism. Still, her innocence struck me! She was the daughter I carried in my belly that day of the 9-11 attacks. I remember staring at the television thinking that the world had come to an end and I may never get to hold the baby in my womb. She never witnessed that day first hand. And, now with wide eyed wonder and even with examples of David and Goliath, could not fathom or even begin to understand why Americans were dancing in the streets of New York triumphant over someone's death.
This is history, the good, the bad, the triumphant and the gruesome acts. It's all a part of the story that makes us who we are.
