Yesterday, I was surprised to realize that today was the 10th Anniversary of the Oklahoma City bombing. On one hand, it's hard to believe that it was that long ago and yet, it doesn't seem that long ago. It's one of those events in life, like Kennedy's assenting and 9/11, that you remember where you were when it you heard about it. It was just that intense.

I had just taken my 6 year old son to Target on Broadway to look for new shoes for him. My then husband and I were separated and my son was living with him in VA. I had him for spring break and since there was no one to care for him the following week because his sitter would be out of town, I had him for an extra week. I was trying to get him all ready for warmer weather since he had outgrown last years clothes. When we finished at Target, we went to the McDonald's across the street for lunch. They had the TV on CNN and they were reporting that a bomb had exploded in Oklahoma City.

I, of course, thought that was awful but couldn't understand why they were showing the smoke coming out of a parking garage. I thought that since it was a parking garage, not as many would be hurt like there would have been if it had been an office building. Then, I realized what I was looking at wasn't a parking garage, it WAS an office building. I had seen the regularly spaced holes and thought they were the openings between the levels of a parking garage. Instead, they were the openings where offices had been after the whole side of the building had been blown off. I don't remember much else about the rest of that day.

I do remember, over the course of the next few days, watching them carry out the little babies and children who had been in the day care center. I saw adults who had been injured, but it was the babies and the children that I remember the most. I also thought of Waco and how it was the 2nd anniversary of that day. I wondered if the bombing was done to get back at the government for that. When that happened, I was painting the dining room of our home getting it ready for my son's birthday party. My first thoughts were of the children that were trapped in that building, hoping that by some miracle they might survive but they didn't. On 9/11, one of my first thoughts was praying that no child would lose both parents that day. That for many years, instead of being excited about the start of the school year and anticipation of the coming holidays when September arrives, their thoughts would instead be about losing their parents.

My son left a few days later. It was so hard when he left. But I knew in a few short weeks he would be back to stay. And that was a whole lot more than those parents in Oklahoma City had.