9-11-2001 / 7-25-2008

I can't believe it's been eight years since the terrorist attacks on the twin towers and the Pentagon happened. I will never forget that morning Rich calling me and asking me if I was watching t.v. to see what was going on. I had just gotten started with my chores and when he told me that a plane had hit a building, I remember asking him if anyone was hurt. I don't think I could wrap my brain around the enormity of what we would see on the news for a long time. I was thinking this morning about all that has happened since September 11, 2001. All of our children have gotten married. Spencer served a mission in Chile for two years during that time, and we have had nine more grandchildren born. As I watched the family members of the victims of the attacks read their names off at Ground Zero and put flowers in the water there, it reminded me of how hard it has been this last year to accept the fact that one of our precious family members is no longer with us. I think I know how they feel now. I remember listening to the testimony of a sister in our ward talk about the daughter they had who had drowned in a boating accident 12 years earlier and thinking, "you need to get over it, it's been a long time." Well, you know, I don't think we will ever get over the death of Kamber. It may get a little easier, but we will never forget her or long to see what would have happened if she hadn't been taken home. I think we take life for granted and think tragedies like this won't happen to us. I'm not comparing the 3,000 plus lives lost on 9-11 to the one life we lost. But I do know that every person matters to our Heavenly Father and that he loves us all. We don't know what we will be asked to experience during our time here on earth, but I think we need to make the most of it by living the gospel like we have been asked to do. That will be the only way we will be able to make it back to see Kamber. I hope as a family we can keep plugging along like the families I saw this morning whose lives changed forever eight years ago.