story4163.xml

story4163.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2002-09-11

My family and I were living in Israel for two years while my husband participated in a fellowship there. On September 11th, I was 8 1/2 months pregnant with my third child. I had gone to pick up my other 2 children from school (Israel is 7 hours ahead of the east coast of the US) as normal. We were in the car driving another child and our friend, her father home when my cell phone rang. My friend picked the phone and told me with total disbelief in his voice that it was my cousin from Tel Aviv calling to tell us that a plane had flown into the World Trade Center. We rushed home, I put the kids in front of a video because I didn't want them to see the news, and I went into the bedroom to watch CNN. All I kept thinking was "Now I understand how all our family and friends in America feel every time there is a terrorist attack in Israel." I was in a total panic about friends and family who worked near ground zero, and of course we could not reach anyone because all the international phone lines were jammed with callers. I thought for sure I would go into labor early (thankfully I didn't). Nothing felt safe anymore. It felt like the world was coming to an end.