![](\"http:\/\/socamom.com\/w\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/socamom_11_2.jpg\")
<\/p>\nBack then, it was just the two of us.<\/p>\n
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At the wedding of one of my best friends. Circa 2001.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n As I write this, I am snuggled up on a friend’s couch between my two youngest 2 kids. \u00a0Eleven years ago, I didn’t have these friends, these two kids, this life. \u00a011 years ago today, I was in a very different place. <\/strong><\/p>\n <\/strong>September 11, 2001, I was late for work, and when I got into our small office of four people, I saw my three co-workers huddled around a small TV set.\u00a0 \u201cLooks like someone in a little plane got off course and hit a building in New York,\u201d one said.\u00a0 I remember thinking \u2013 that that was crazy, and that people should get way more training before being allowed to fly those little planes.\u00a0 Then I settled into my desk, and a second co-worker shouts, \u201cWhat?! Another one? Now this is just strange.\u201d So then I start thinking, well, maybe it was some kind of air traffic control issue \u2013 someone is getting fired.<\/p>\n Everything after that was a blur.\u00a0 I lived in Maryland, but worked in downtown DC back then.\u00a0 Eventually the reports of the Pentagon being hit came in, and quiet panic set in.\u00a0 At the time, I was a single mother of a toddler, and all I could think of was how I was going to get to him.<\/strong><\/p>\n I got to work on the train, and traffic in DC was a nightmare on a regular day \u2013 who knew how it would be after a terrorist attack.\u00a0 My supervisor and her husband drove me from DC to the metro station in Greenbelt so that I could get my car.\u00a0 They were worried that the trains would be another target.\u00a0 I got my son from the daycare, and we made it home.\u00a0 I didn\u2019t have cable at the time, cell phones were down, and my dial up internet service was iffy at best, painfully slow at worst.<\/p>\n I managed to check on the few people I knew that were in the area, and they either didn\u2019t go to work that day, or were nowhere near the area when the attack happened.<\/p>\n Eventually the sniper panic of 2002 replaced the terrorist panic of 2001.\u00a0 Once the message went out that the \u201csniper\u201d said that our children weren\u2019t safe, I sent my son to Georgia to stay with his grandmother, and looked into a football helmet to wear while I pumped gas.\u00a0 (I got the letter that my mom wrote to tell me to send him to her when I got back from dropping him off.)\u00a0 I don\u2019t remember anything about the day before the attack or the day after.\u00a0 But THAT day \u2013 I will never forget.<\/strong><\/p>\n Working on letters for my niece’s wall. The family just keeps growing!<\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n I probably won’t forget this day either. <\/strong>As September 10th became September 11th, I was finishing up painting and decorating my niece’s room, and I heard her stirring and whimpering in the other room. \u00a0I picked her up and I could hear my mom’s voice saying, “this is life.” She always left out “the” in that, and I always thought it was because she wasn’t from here. \u00a0When I think about it now, she’s right. \u00a0This isn’t THE life… this IS life. \u00a0Being with family and friends, supporting one another, and making memories – that IS life. <\/strong><\/p>\n Now these guys have joined our family!<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n I encourage you to remember and honor those who lost their lives in the attacks, and those whose families will never be the same, by cherishing your family and friends that are here with you now.<\/strong><\/p>\n Back then, it was just the two of us.<\/p>\n At the wedding of one of my best friends. Circa 2001.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n As I write this, I am snuggled up on a friend’s couch between my two youngest 2 kids. \u00a0Eleven years ago, I didn’t have these friends, these two kids, this life. \u00a011 years ago today, I was in a very different place. <\/strong><\/p>\n <\/strong>September 11, 2001, I was late for work, and when I got into our small office of four people, I saw my three co-workers huddled around a small TV set.\u00a0 \u201cLooks like someone in a little plane got off course and hit a building in New York,\u201d one said.\u00a0 I remember thinking \u2013 that that was crazy, and that people should get way more training before being allowed to fly those little planes.\u00a0 Then I settled into my desk, and a second co-worker shouts, \u201cWhat?! Another one? Now this is just strange.\u201d So then I start thinking, well, maybe it was some kind of air traffic control issue \u2013 someone is getting fired.<\/p>\n Everything after that was a blur.\u00a0 I lived in Maryland, but worked in downtown DC back then.\u00a0 Eventually the reports of the Pentagon being hit came in, and quiet panic set in.\u00a0 At the time, I was a single mother of a toddler, and all I could think of was how I was going to get to him.<\/strong><\/p>\n![](\"http:\/\/socamom.com\/w\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/socamom_11.jpg\")
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