It's hard to believe its been 8 years since they tested our Freedom. 8 years since so many innocent lives were lost. 8 years later you still remember exactly what you were doing at the exact moment you found out.
I was working at a daycare center on September 11, 2001. I had just graduated high school in May of 2001 and still trying to figure out which way life was going to take me. I remember taking my class to the kitchen/dining area for a snack that morning. After getting my kids settled, I went into the kitchen to get their snack. The first plane had just hit the world trade center. We heard it on the radio & immediately turned on the TV (out of view from the kids). We thought it was such a bizarre accident. How tragic & scary. We couldn't figure out why they plane had been flying so low. Then within just a few minutes we watch on LIVE TV as the second plane and nearing the WTC and we knew at the exact second something was going on but we had no clue it was something that was going to change our lives forever!!
We watched as the 2nd plane crashed into the WTC. As another crashes in the Pentagon & as another crashes in a Field. We couldn't take our eyes off the TV. Phones immediately start ringing parents on their way to pick up their children. By noon there was not a single kid left at daycare. We were all free to go home. But none of us wanted to move, we were in so much shock. How could this be happening! This is the United States! These things don't happen here! The values, freedom and security that country was built upon was being shaken! Will this be what makes our great Country fall?
I left work and met up with my mom and we decided we weren't going to fall without a fight! We were going to continue to be proud to be Americans!! We were going to rise thru the Mourning! We were going to show our Pride! It was honestly the first time I felt my community was truly proud to American. We went to 7 stores that day, in search of an American Flag for our cars. To my surprise, everyone was sold out! What a great feeling! We weren't the only ones proud that day, we weren't the only ones who wanted to recognize the ones we had the lost. The innocent that had fallen. The brave men & women who lost their lives trying to save another.
The way I view our country has forever been different since that day. It proved that even during the most diffucult and unbelievable moments we will stand proud. We will not fall without a fight! We continue everyday for Fight for our freedom. The men and women of our Armed Forces fight every second of every day. Wives go with out husbands and children go out without parents. So that we may be free and that we may spend our time with our loved ones.
So, today as we continue to mourn the fallen and we continue to remember the tragic events of September 11, 2001, Stand PROUD! Be PROUD to be an AMERICAN! Thank our Men and Women of the Armed Forces. Our Policemen, Firemen & Paramedics! Hug the ones you love and forgive the ones who do us wrong! Praise GOD! Let our lives not let us forget, let it not blind us. God BLESS!
Ps. in 2006 I signed up for Project 2996! This project was organized so that bloggers could pay tribute to the 2996 people we lost that day. Below is my tribute then. I have signed up again and will be posting my tribute to another fallen American shortly! Please go sign-up http://project2996.wordpress.com/home . Please honor the men & women who lost their lives that day! Read other tributes as well. 
MR. LEON LEBOR
Leon Lebor, SEIU Local 32BJ, 51, was a janitor at the World Trade Center. He was deaf, but this didn't stop him from experiencing life fully. A native of London, he traveled the world, moving to Jerusalem and eventually New York. He is remembered best by those who knew him at the Trade Center for his sense of humor. He loved telling jokes and putting on a wide variety of clownish faces.
The Jerusalem Post reported on November 6th that Leon Lebor, 51, was buried at Har Hamenuhot Cemetery in Jerusalem. Lebor was born in London, attended the Jewish Deaf School and trained as a furrier before moving to the United States in 1970. His parents immigrated to Israel in 1971. Lebor, who had become a florist, followed them in 1980 and worked as a flower arranger at the King David Hotel but had problems learning the new language. For this reason he decided to return to the U.S. and was working for a maintenance company at the World Trade Center when the planes crashed into it on September 11th. His body is the third to be recovered and brought back to Israel for burial.
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