In our home, 9-11 is a very special day. Besides the obvious tragic event on 9-11, it's also our youngest daughter's birthday. Raena was 11 years old when this tragedy hit.  

I remember we were all in shock that day, but she was just 11 years old and we had planned to take her out to dinner that night for her birthday.  Although it was far from a party atmosphere that day, we didn't want to ruin Raena's special day so we took her out to dinner.  I remember no one else was in the popular, crowded restaurant.  Just us.  All but one waiter had gone home since the place was so empty.  It was like being in the Twilight Zone.  It was odd that hardly anyone was on the street or in the restaurants that night. 

Since then, every year, in addition to remembering those who have been so affected by this sad event, we try extra hard to make this a happy, hopeful day for Raena.

I love this video because it shows how "hard, ugly" events in our life can actually help transform us into living a much happier, healthy life than we thought we could.