A Hard Yet Beautiful Day

My kids had bagels, fruit and a glass of milk for breakfast which was a good thing, since the rest of their diet today has been interesting.  Lunch consisted of candy bars, cookies and brownies.  Dinner was Lucky Charms cereal with a brownie for dessert.  At least I can say they had some protein today as they consumed a fair amount of milk.  Some days are like that.

We spent the day baking and making thank you cards which we will distribute tomorrow.  In the midst of that we just let sugar be our diet for the day :)  I think it was honestly just what the doctor ordered after spending an intense morning discussing such light topics as terrorism, war, 9/11, and all the intense and fairly graphic discussions that went along with that.

Tonight putting Sirah to bed, she said "Today was a lot for my 7 year old brain" and I could not have summed it up any better.  I wanted to respond "It was a lot for my 36 year old brain as well" but I did not think it would help her.  Throughout the course of the day some questions that came up were:

Why would a terrorist want children to die?

How does a fire fighter go back inside a building they know they are likely to never come out of?

How can I pray for the people who might want to do this again?

What really happened inside the plane that crashed and why couldn't they get it back in the air?

Why did this happen and can't it happen again?

How many children died?  What happened to the children who lost their parents?

How can our government make sure this doesn't happen again?

Why didn't this happen on a weekend when no one was there or why not in the middle of the day when more people would have been?

Mom I just can't wrap my mind around it or why anyone would want to do this.  Why would anyone want to die and not care about anyone else or themselves?

We had discussions about the difference between war and terrorism.  We talked about how we can't judge people or make assumptions based on religion, nationality or the like, how there can be extreme people everywhere.  We talked about how the police and FBI were able to learn about the people behind the attacks and all the good that was able to come out of that horrible day.  We watched a video of the events of the day.  We used a lot of personal examples and discussed the ways the day directly affected our family.   Our morning was filled with discussion and prayer.

Our afternoon was filled with baking and artwork.  The kids made thank you cards for the fire department, police department, military and emergency room workers.  We baked cookies and brownies for hours on end.  Tomorrow we will deliver them and say thank you.

Yes my children are still young and some may feel too young to have these discussions with but as I listened to their prayers, their questions and their understanding - they are not too young.  Too young to see images of the jumpers - yes.  Too young to know what happened and the significance - no.  Too young to pray - no.

History is not always kind or pleasant but we can always learn from it.  We can make choices to never forget and to do our part to remember and try to move forward in a more positive way.  My kids spent a day in service and a day they will remember - for several years now this is how we spend 9/11 - serving others and saying thank you to all of those who serve us.

Hold your family close.  Be kind to a stranger.  Be gentle and loving with one another.  Never forget.