September 11, 2001

I can't believe what happened today. It's like a bad dream.  We slept late. You didn't wake mommy up until 9:22 a.m.  I immediately jumped up and got you ready for daycare.  You were a good little girl and not as fussy as usual. 

 When we got into the car, no music was playing on the radio. The announcers said that a plane crashed into one of the towers of the World Trade Center.  That's in a city called New York, little one.  As I heard the announcer talking about it, I was still thinking it was an accident until they started using the word "attack". They said a few minutes later another plane crashed into the other tower!  I don't know why I continued driving to the daycare. I think I was on auto pilot.  The daycare lady, Mrs. Hunt,  told us they we closed.  That's when it dawned on me. America was under attack!

I raced home and called your Grandpa.  He works for the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).  Your Pa Pa's job is to make sure the radar tower at Ellington Field is working in tip top shape.  I couldn't reach him at all and I started to worry.  As I drove home, I started thinking about all of my students who were back at school.  Since you were born in August, Mommy didn't have go to work for the first three weeks of school.  I knew the kids would be scared.

I also started thinking about who could have done such a terrible thing.  I have a hunch it's a bad guy named bin Laden.  He blew up some big U.S. Navy ships last year and bombed a big building in Kenya.  He's a very bad man. I hope they catch him soon.

When we got home, I couldn't stop holding you. I wouldn't even put you down when your daddy got home.  I kept thinking, I'd never let anyone hurt you.  I waited 40 weeks for you to come into my life and NO ONE is going to threaten to cut that short. I would gladly fight to the death for you.  Mommy is a fighter and she always will be.  Mommy will always go down fighting.