358 Days/28w5d

We are on our way home and should be back in Virginia sometime late tonight. We had a wonderful vacation and I think that it was incredibly good for Arianna and I to spend some time with my extended family. With me being an only child and Jon only having one brother, Arianna really won't grow up with a lot of aunts and uncles and cousins like I did. Even though I didn't get to see them often, I looked forward to vacations and loved having a big family. I want Arianna (and eventually Lucy) to know all of them well and remain familiar.

All of that said, Arianna and I are definitely excited to get back home and see Jon. Arianna has really started tovmiss him the past couple of days and because of the time difference and flurry of activities there hasn't been much time to talk on the phone or Skype. So we are eager to get back and get used to our daily routine again.

I know that I'm changing the subject rather abruptly here, but I can't let today go by without mentioning something about September 11th. I was a sophmore in high school and woke up to my dad watching the news. This really wasn't anything out of the ordinary so I went about my morning as usual. I remember hearing the anchors talking excitedly about something and playing the same video clip over and over. After about the fourth time, I started to notice less excitement and more fear in their voices and wondered what was going on. My dad told me what he knew, but nothing sunk in and even after spending a full day at school doing nothing but watching the news, I still didn't realize the severity of the situation.

It wasn't until I got home that I really understood that something bad was happening. My mom was home early from work and frantically making phone calls to my grandma and my Aunt JoAnn. She was trying to find out if her older brother, my Uncle Bob, was ok. He was working at the Pentagon at the time and she hadn't been able to get in touch with anyone since the Pentagon had been attacked. She finally got a hold of my grandma who had just gotten word that everything was fine and that Bob had not been hurt.

Today, September 11th, 2010, has given me a lot to think about and so much to be thankful for. I will be spending the next 12 hours traveling home with Uncle Bob who, nine years ago, we were afraid we might have lost. I am coming up on one year of marriage to a Marine who felt called to serve his country after it was so violently attacked. I just spent the past week saying goodbye to my Uncle Dennis who served 20 years in the Marines and I have many friends whose husbands are currently serving overseas, risking their lives, and sacrificing time with their loved ones to prevent something like this from ever happening again.

Our family is blessed, we are grateful, and we will never forget.

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