September 11th...

Eight years ago, and yet I remember like it was yesterday. I remember waking up to an enormous sense of dread - that something was very wrong. As a mom to a 6 month old baby, he was my first thought, and I went to check him... he was fine, but I couldn't go back to sleep. When I turned on the news, Katie Couric was talking about a plane hitting the WTC, and soon after, I watched live footage of the 2nd tower being struck. It seemed so unreal, and yet it was then that I realized that somehow I knew when that first plane hit - that was why I woke up with that terrible sense of dread. The timing was exact. We did our best to go about our regular morning routines - getting ready for work and getting baby Corey ready to go to daycare. It was early on the West Coast. I remember how hard it was to drop off Corey that morning - not because I believed he was really in danger, but because I wanted to hold him close to me. The first tower fell as I dropped him off.

I went in to work, but knew that it wasn't going to be a real "workday". Two of us spent a couple of hours tracking down all of our employees who were either in the air or on the east coast that morning. We also managed to confirm that our Flagship NY office was ok, employees accounted for. What a surreal morning, phonecall after phone call, all the while the news on TV just kept getting worse and worse. I learned that I had many friends who were stranded away from family, and many who couldn't find out if their loved ones were safe. We managed to get good news spread where we could. Finally, there was nothing more that we could do and we shut down the office. Some stayed just to talk and support each other. I went and picked up my baby boy and spent a good portion of the remainder of the day holding him and watching the horrifying news coverage, how could I not?

Eight years have passed, but we will never forget that day. To the many who were lost, and those who they left behind, to those who put themselves in harm's way that day - and since, to those who serve, in any capacity.... God Bless you all!