Do you remember Sunday?

flag flying at West Point

On a peaceful Sunday night, quietude filled the home and this mama lounged in her pajamas with the Hubs and her mom. The middle OS Aaron and orange haired, freckle face Isaac were asleep; the kitchen was clean, the dehydrator was going strong as usual. 


We were watching a television show I refuse to mention for fear that you would think less of me (!) and suddenly there was a major news announcement.

that dehydrator doesn't stop dehydrating for nothin'!

I wondered if there was a severe weather warning. A round of deadly tornadoes has swept our state but the interruption wasn't from our local tv affiliate, it was from the national news network. The President was going to address the country imminently. What was so important that he had to talk to us so close to most people's bedtime? Why couldn't it have waited until the morning? Oh Jesus, what are we going to learn?


The three of us remained glued to the flat screen. As we waited, I googled, hoping to get advanced information that would either confirm or deny my worst thoughts. That was to no avail. Were we announcing another war? Did someone super duper important in the administration die? Was there another terrorist attack?

nation's capital

My spirit felt trapped and my feet unsteady. I wondered about the rest of my family. Would I ever see them again? What about my boy? My Soldier? Surely this news was going to effect him! Something was going to change and there was nothing I could do about it.


Then President Obama appeared on our tv screen. He approached the microphone and gave us the news that Osama bin Laden had been killed. Although I wasn't sure what was going to happen next in our country, I knew what we could expect. The phone rang. It was our boy.


"Did you hear the news?" Nate inquired. "Everyone's going crazy over here, celebrating. We're pretty pumped."

What else should you expect at West Point? Of course they were ecstatic and rightly so! These cadets are willing to sacrifice their lives for our country and safety, they should rejoice! Hearing Nate's voice reassured me. Of all the places to be on this Sunday night, Nate was at a place of historic significance, an institution (albeit imperfect) but nonetheless a place where honor, duty and country mean something.


Lord willing, one day my OS will be able to tell his children and his grandchildren about this moment. He will never forget the time when he and his fellow cadets rejoiced over the news that the sickening mastermind of terrorist attacks on US soil was eliminated from existence. While I sat in my cotton pajamas with my family, my precious child Nate was amidst people willing to die to defend  our way of life. Among the most epic of all places to be when this man was killed would be at a military academy. Osama bin Laden was found just yards away from Pakistan's equivalent of West Point.


In only one year, Nate will be graduating from West Point and most likely going to a place of international conflict. I'm not ready to go there yet emotionally and he's not ready to go there geographically but we'll need to gear up fairly soon. The Lord has not prepared me for this yet, I'm taking it day by day, not trying to borrow trouble.  

This is the motto of USMA Class of 2012 - I love it

I'm not naive enough to think that all of our world's problems ended on Sunday when that man was felled but y'all, I'm glad, really glad he's gone. 

My sugar boy and me during a recent trip to West Point

For my next post, I'm going to share a story I wrote nine years ago about something Isaac asked me after September 11th.