"It was September 11, 2001 - a day whose events would change my life forever. I was destined by the Lord to be one of those who survived the ‘Ground Zero' terrorist attack on the Pentagon.
...Suddenly, I heard two, successive, loud, blasts in front of me! I was in shock and disbelief as I felt the building shudder and shake. I stood frozen in place as I looked up and saw the windows crack in front of me, and then implode into the bay (not outward) where I was standing! The sensation of the walls and ceiling bursting into chaotic life all around me was absolutely incredible.…
I heard someone yell, "Get Down," and I immediately dropped to the floor, as did everyone else around me...Smoke seemed to be coming from the window area in front of me where the explosions had occurred. But, despite this surreal assessment, the situation did not seem to be immediately life threatening.…Logic dictated that I should go out the bay, turn right and go toward the E-Ring to the nearest exit, to the outer perimeter of the building structure. However, when I went out the bay, I believed that I was to turn left, go toward the inside of the Building in the direction of the A-Ring! This was not logical! Natural reasoning dictated I should go toward the E-Ring. Nonetheless, believing that God was directing me, my colleague and I were among the first out the bay, and moving toward the A-Ring toward the center of the Pentagon.
As we moved into the 4th corridor, a clearer picture of danger unfolded! The air was becoming thick with black and gray colored smoke. Debris was falling from the ceiling, plaster was exploding out of the walls, and other materials from the infrastructure were exploding onto the floor of the corridor. It looked like a war zone! Explosions continued and the smoke became thicker by the second..."
That is just a small excerpt from a book called "The Pentagon Miracle" by Colonel Linda R. Herbert. This past Sunday we visited Jake's brothers church about 1 1/2 hours from there. This lady was the visiting speaker, she is a United States Army officer (active duty) who is a survivor of the 9-11 terrorist attack on the Pentagon. She was at "ground zero" Pentagon on the day of the attacks. She is also in ministry and co-pastor's Covenant Life Church, with her husband, near Washington D.C.
This lady is amazing, she holds a Bachelor's Degree in Business Administration and has
three Master's Degrees: General Administration, Program Management, and Counseling. Linda is a Nationally Certified Counselor (NCC), and a Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC) with areas of specialty counseling in marriage, and multi-cultural/racial counseling. Linda and her husband Jeff are co-Founders and co-Pastors of
Prophetic Life Ministries (PLM) and Covenant Life Church, a prophetic, Christian, multi-racial/multi-cultural ministry and church. They are ordained with
Christian International (CI) and reside near Washington, D.C. where God is using them to pastor, prophetically minister, teach, and provide deliverance and equipping to the Body of Christ.
It was an honor to listen to her amazing story about the experiences she had the morning of September 11th. If you'd like to have a copy of her book, you can order one
here. She was signing the books after the service was over and in each book she wrote, "He still does miracles," I thought that was neat.
Earlier this week my dear sister Janet came and picked up Tyler to take him to the mall for the afternoon. What a pleasant surprise and of course he was in his glory hanging out with his "Aunt Shrish" and his cousin Chase. So, while I had a few moments to myself, (Luke was taking his nap). I decided to make myself a little homemade getaway! Pictured above are all my "tricks of the trade!" I'll tell you, the things women use/need to "maintain," it's actually quite funny! I turned on my ipod, lit a candle, got out my paraffin wax and was on my way....Thanks Shrish for the fun time. Tyler was talking about it until the moment he fell asleep.
"You can take no credit for beauty at sixteen. But if you are beautiful at sixty, it will be your soul's own doing." ~Marie Stopes 
As I was looking at him I was thinking about my inner life and the inner life of those around us. So often we look "perfect" on the outside, but inside we feel like Tyler looks. 
Of course, when someone is obviously hurting it's easy to offer compassion, kindness, understanding and grace, but most often it's needed when everything seems to be going "fine." 
Hi, I'm Tyler and this is a little story of my first day in the snow. 
I'm off to play....
I've been thinking a lot about angels lately. I pray that they surround our home and go with us when we leave these four walls. And especially as the boys sleep, we pray that angels look over them and keep them safe. I've often wondered where exactly they "are." Do they stand at the door, do they stand in the four corners of the room? Do they hover above us? As I was watching the boys take their nap the other day, (life just goes by too quickly to not take some time to watch your babies sleep), I pictured peaceful angels just hovering above them.....so I decided to give the camera to one of them and let them take a picture from their view....Angel view!!
This past Wednesday I decided to take some time....well, it's more like MAKE some time to have three lovely ladies over for tea. These ladies represent so much in my life, they are women to be admired, respected, honored and esteemed. I place a lot of value on having "older" women in my life. Those who have traveled before me, paving the way of sorts. I have SO MUCH to glean from their life experiences. They & their husbands are friends with Jake and I through different avenues of life, but they also are long time friends with one another. It's really a neat story, the way I met each one individually only to find out that they knew one another. Even on our wedding day, it was so special to have them seated at the same table with their husbands. 
Seated left to right ~ Linda Eberly, Marianne Stoltzfus and Orpha Hostetter. 
