New Sites, Thank Yous, Thoughts and Reflection

If you haven't already checked them out (I am a little behind the 8 ball...), I urge you to check out two new sites launched by Malroy from Every Life Has a Story.  Her new sites are Keeping Their Memory Alive and Butterfly Footprints.   Keeping Their Memory Alive is dedicated to hosting angel videos created by parents and family members; Butterfly Footprints is dedicated to making beautiful butterfly prints from the footprints of angels.  I would like to thank Mal for the honor of having Gracie included as part of the Butterfly Footprints site, and also thank her for creating such beautiful prints with Gracie's footprints.

I would also like to thank Angela at RockaBYEbaby for doing such fantastic photos of Gracie's name. 

I want to send out warmest thoughts to the family of my friend, Debbie, as loss strikes so very close to home again. 

To close out this post, I will spend just one moment reflecting on this particular day and the impact that it has had on so many people over the last 9 years.  I can't speak for every part of the country, but today's weather in PA is almost identical to the weather on that horrible day...simply a perfect fall day.  Just as our parents (well, maybe not all of our parents, depending on how old all of us are...) remember exactly where they were and what they were doing when JFK was shot and his death was confirmed, few of us will ever forget where we were or what we were doing on that otherwise beautiful morning.  Those of us who watched the live television broadcasts as the second plane struck the second tower...and those of us who watched the live television broadcasts as each of the towers collapsed will forever have those images burned into our minds (of course the marvels of modern media make it hard to forget anything these days).  Nine years ago, it was something that most of us just watched in horror and awe.  Now, most of us in this community can think about it with a different spin....now that we have all lost a child.  We certainly have no idea what it is like to lose an adult child, but we can certainly better understand the loss of so many of the surviving parents.  Just as my heart goes out to Debbie's family, it continues to go out to the families of each and every 9.11.01 victim.