Today Rowan gets to fly in an airplane for the first time since he's been born! We'll fly to Jacksonville, Florida (chosen because of the availability of direct flights) where Grandmommy will pick us up and take us the 2 hours back to Valdosta, Georgia. There, Rowan will get to meet his Great-Grammies for the first time! She's so excited to see him, it's eating her up. Anyway, we'll spend a few days there then we'll trek to Atlanta where I'll attend a conference while Grandmommy and Rowan hang out in the lovely midtown hotel room. Finally, Rowan and I will fly back home on Sunday where we'll meet an eagerly awaiting Daddy at the airport.
I pause for a moment and reflect on the day, today. I'm sure everyone else will be reflecting too since just saying "September 11th" brings so many difficult memories. For me it also brings memories of transformation. See, it was September 11th, 2001 that made Delta Air Lines offer generous leave packages to employees, and I took one. It was that leave package that let me move back to my hometown and begin teaching at Valdosta State University. It was that teaching job that helped me see a Ph.D. in computer science, followed by a teaching career, is what I would pursue. And it was living back there again, in the most unlikely town in southern Georgia, that I met my husband. And of course, it was meeting that husband that led me to the life I have now, including the most wonderful baby ever born to anybody. See, transformation. So I fly today with nothing but thankfulness in my own heart and prayers for restoration and justice yet to come for all of us.