Growing, Changing, Remembering

I perused the Shafferland blog archives to see if I've written about 9/11 every year, and I was quite surprised to see I've actually not written about it more times than I did make it the subject of a post.

It surprised me because 9/11 was a life-marker for me. I did not personally know a single person who died that day, nor did I know someone who knew someone who knew someone lost or injured.

But the day marked me - as I'm sure it marked you.

This was the Bekah of 2001:

I was every bit as unsure of myself and naïve as those pictures would indicate. In some ways, I was wise beyond my years, but in even more ways, I was dreadfully immature with so much growing to do.

That day (as was true for many) became the swift kick into growing up. It provided more questions than answers, but it pushed me to realize that the neat and tidy world I had perceived was gone forever. In truth, it probably never really existed, but it did in my mind until that day.

It was the first day I ever truly felt alone.

My parents were on vacation. My roommate worked an opposite shift from mine, and she was at work that evening. My ex-boyfriend (that I still believed would one day pick me) was out of town on business. Everyone else huddled with their own family and friends, and I huddled with the Lord, and so began a new level of intimacy in our relationship.

I think this is why 9/11 every year is such a life-marking day for me. I clear my calendar, and I watch the documentaries - all of them I can find. Some of them I watch every single year, and others are new. I watch for two reasons.

First and foremost, I never want to forget the people whose stories changed forever that day. They will always matter, and I want to give them an audience. It's just a thing I want to do in their honor and memory.

Secondly, I watch them - and watch them alone - because I never want to forget what that day meant for my life, even as far removed from the actual event as I was. I want to remember how alone I felt and how God met me in that fear. I want to remember how that scared, immature, naïve girl began to grow up. I want to remember how the unknown of that day fed into the unknown of my life and how God used it to grow me.

The Bekah of 18 years later is still sometimes immature. She's still sometimes naïve. She's still sometimes scared.

But she has come so far. She is in no way the same girl she was in those first pictures you saw.

None of us are the same. That day changed each of us (who have memories of the day, anyway) in personal and unique ways.

So today I will sit and watch my documentaries. I will hear the same stories I heard last year and the year before that. I will hear new stories. I will give the people of 9/11 my ear and receive the stories they tell.

And today I will sit and remember how God changed and grew me on that day and in all the days since. He is good. Even on that hard, unspeakably tragic day, He was good. And on this day, which is equally hard and unspeakably tragic for some, He is still good.

Our First Air Show, Part 2

Before I show you the rest of the air show pictures, it's podcast Tuesday, so here's your fresh supply of stories. We sure made ourselves laugh this week, so we hope you'll laugh with/at us!

Listen here

Want to see a few more pictures from the air show? I promise not to show you all 400! :) 

These guys were a lot of fun to watch!

Lori, I'm sorry you didn't catch a ride on this one! It came from your fair state and flew right back home after its appearance!

If you've heard the podcast, you heard us talk about the wing walker. See her out there?

She was one brave girl! Because as you can see...she moved to the top!

 And why not add flying upside down while standing on top???

I was so nervous for her!

The Thunderbirds flew the day we were there; weather kept them from flying the next day. This was the only time we needed earplugs, but my goodness - they were magnificent!

A great show! So glad we were able to go! :) 

Grissom Air Show

For those of you who aren't from around here, you might not know that there's an air reserve base just north of Kokomo. It's one of those places we've had in our backyard our whole lives, and neither of us had ever been there. (Everyone has those places, right?)

Several months ago, we read about plans for an upcoming air show at the base, and neither one of us had ever been to one of those either! It was a two day event, but we planned to go on Saturday. It turned out to be a gorgeous day. (A little more gorgeous than the forecast thought, so we didn't exactly dress appropriately. I hope all the sweat comes out!)

We went in the morning and spent a little bit of time looking at the planes. They had them open for people to tour. We would have loved to go through more of them, but we ran out of time before the show started, and then the show went so much longer than we thought it would, and we just wanted to come home when it was done. But here are a few pictures from the planes!

We had a great seat for the air show - behind the VIP area. We were close enough that we were able to see some of the low-to-the-ground stunts pretty well!

We had chairs, and we took plenty of sunscreen, but it was so sunny and so hot! The articles we read about the show said people were allowed to bring empty water bottles and fill them at water stations throughout the show, but we never saw any of them. We bought water, but it was pretty expensive, so we tried not to go crazy. I'm pretty sure we both had some dehydration going on when we came home.

My picture taking turned out better than I thought! I hadn't taken all my lenses, because I wasn't sure they'd let me take them all through security, and it wasn't exactly the kind of setup where you could just run back to the car very easily. And looking into the sun meant I often couldn't see what I was trying to photograph. So I was pretty excited to have a good selection of pictures! Here are some of the many I took.

The American flag arrived via parachute during National Anthem. (The guy that sang the anthem did a fantastic job, by the way.)

I am not a plane expert. I'm barely a novice! So I don't know the names of most of the planes, but hopefully you can enjoy their beauty anyway.

Yes! That last plane is upside down. There were lots of twirls and turns throughout the day!

We also saw some parachutes!

And more planes...

 They did a demonstration of how a rescue effort would have looked during Vietnam. They said the people in this demonstration were all Vietnam vets, and they received quite an ovation on their way back down the runway.

I feel like that's quite a string of pictures already, so I'll save the rest for tomorrow! (I took over 400 pictures, so I promise you're truly getting just a sample!)

The Shafferland Shuffle

A very happy birthday to my mom...and we'll just leave out her age! :) Hope you have a happy day, today, Mom! While she celebrates another year of life, here are the things we've celebrated and enjoyed this past week!

* After church last week, we stopped by Lowe's, and I found myself staring at paint samples. Do you really need a new project, Bekah? (The answer is no, but dreaming is fun!) I made a Dashing Dish meat loaf recipe for dinner, and it was so good, and Ryan and I went on a sunset walk, too! Beautiful weather that day and most of the week, actually!

* Monday was Labor Day and our 81st monthiversary, and I've already told you about both of them! Ryan worked, and I went to IKEA with my friend Amber. When Ryan and I got home, we celebrated 81 months with some house-project-completion! We grilled out for dinner and called it a really wonderful day.

* Tuesday marked the kickoff of our new small group season. Not everyone from our group was able to be there, but we loved spending time with the ones that were! I made berry shortcake for our snack, we dug into Erica Wiggenhorn's new study, and one of our small group friends brought me a new, totally-Bekah sweatshirt. (It's as comfortable as it is cute!)

* Wednesday began the great office overhaul. Over the craziness of the past year, it's become kind of a catch-all place, and I haven't been able to be creatively inspired in there for a while now. I started out by reorganizing all my books to put them in color order instead of alphabetical order. Looks so pretty now! I had a good long workout that afternoon, and Ryan and I rounded out the day by practicing our Dutch Blitz skills!

* I reprised my role of carpool driver on Thursday morning - just helping out a friend for the day. (Not the same kids I used to drive.) When I came home, I launched into cleaning the office for real. I organized, purged, threw stuff away, put stuff away...it was a busy day! I even put together the stools I got at IKEA! As long as you only look at half the office, it looks really great!

* Friday morning, I met a friend for coffee and listening and business brainstorming. It was a good morning (and good coffee)! Ryan and I ran errands after work, and we found the coffee mug we both need. HA! When we got home, I added another little fall piece to our house. I need to watch for clearance sales this year! I'm too cheap to pay the in-season prices.

* Yesterday was date-day for us! We've had this one on the calendar for a long time! There was a huge air show at the air reserve base north of Kokomo. We've never been to an air show and had no idea what to expect. (There were many parts of it that we did not assume correctly in advance, but we had a GREAT time.) I'll have to tell you all about it this week!

The Saturday Six

One.

Well this is just too stinkin' cute. A tic tac toe board with orange and white pumpkins for markers! If you're having a fall party, you might just have to make one of these, based on cuteness alone.

Two.

This was a powerful article. I agree with what the author says - and it's convicting to me as an author and speaker. While I believe in the importance of relating to people through stories, I hope the biggest takeaway is always about Jesus. I hope the majority of the words are always about Jesus.

Three.

This former park ranger has a blog with all kinds of tips and hints for taking great trips to national parks! She even has itineraries for purchase to help you have the fullest trips possible. We haven't taken trips out west yet, but I'm keeping this resource tucked in my pocket for when we do!)

Four.

Our small group started meeting again this week, and we had some new people join our group. Some of them commented on our coffee kitchen - which we still love so much. I stumbled upon this post this week, and it has some fun ideas for coffee bars (big and small!), so if you want some inspiration to get a Shaffer-esque coffee area in your house, take a look!

Five.

You know my fond affection for cute food, right? I LOVE THIS ONE!!! You can make (or buy) brownies and then dress them up for presentation. My favorite thing about this is that I think anyone can do it, regardless of baking or artistic skills (or lack thereof).

Six.

An intriguing guide to filling your freezer with meals...if such a thing interests you and terrifies you all at the same time. I've never done it, but then again, it's just the two of us, and I work from home, so I usually have time to cook from scratch. Still, though...intriguing.