Sept. 11, 2001. The Day my world changed

I can't believe its been ten years.  Like most people it seems like it just happened.  For me it was a day of joy amid a world of sorrow.  A week earlier my doctor sat me down and told me how toxic my body was ( I was pre-eclampsic) and the ultrasound showed that our unborn daughter was going to be over ten pounds. Her consideration of those two things was to do a planned C-section.  After recovering from the shock of not having a natural birth, I asked how soon I could get this kid out of my body.  She said Sept. 11, 2001.  It seemed like a good date then.
  My daughter Hannah Rose, was born that day.  I remember before going to the hospital my dad called  (who was on his way to San Luis Obispo, were we lived to enjoy his new granddaughter).  He said, "Turn on the TV, I think something has happened".  I had to be at the hospital at 9am and I think it was around 6am at the time and the scene unraveled before my eyes.  I have never been to NY, and I didn't really know what the twin towers were.  We arrived at the hospital and before getting wheeled into surgery we prayed for those people affected.  Soon my daughter was born.  I remember going in and out of consciousness with the juxtaposition of the horror of the TV and the joy of meeting my daughter for the first time. It was surreal.
Our lives changed that day because we became parents.  These two young people were now in charge of molding a new life.  That is not the only thing that changed that day.  American woke up.  The veil of security and comfort was lifted and the fragility of our lives was realized.  The illusion of control has vanished and now a new found fear and national pride was prevalent.  I still think it was so fitting that she was named Hannah which means "Grace" or blessed by God.  How can God bless on such a day of sadness.  He does.  Really our lives are fragile and God is in control.

"Jesus alone has died and returned from death. Jesus alone knows what awaits us on the other side of death. Jesus alone has defeated death, and declared so saying, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die” (John 11:25-26).
The central event of the Bible and human history is the death of Jesus on the cross for the sins of the world and his resurrection in victory over death. It is through sin that death entered the world. And it is through Jesus’ death that sin and death are defeated, those who are far from God are brought near to God, and those facing death can do so knowing that Jesus tells the truth, that he meets us on the other side of death and that he raises the dead." 
You can find this quote and more on the subject from my pastor:  http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/on-faith/post/the-horror-of-death-and-the-hope-of-resurrection/2011/09/08/gIQAGxIECK_blog.html

Now whenever people ask Hannah he birthday her answer is met with shock because unlike other tragedies in history this one is remembered by the date because of the multiple locations of the attack.  I pray that as she grows physically and in understanding of God's Grace that she can point to the hope of a new life without sin, sorrow, or death.