2001

I labeled this post "against the odds" because the chances of me surviving 2 DVT's (deep vein thrombosis blood clots) and several clots in my left lung for a long duration of time are very slim.  I am so thankful that it wasn't my time to leave this Earth and that I could still be a mother to our children and be a part of their lives.  

Jeff was still plugging away at school and work.  When he had some free time we would drive to Helen, GA in the North Georgia Mountains and go tubing on the Chatahoochee River.  We also had fun driving to Chattanooga to go to the Tennessee Aquarium, driving in the rural Georgia mountains to go to Burt's Pumpkin and Popcorn Patch every fall, and going berry picking in the spring in the beautiful and rural farming towns of the South.

Morgan started Kindergarten and loved to ride the bus with all of her neighborhood friends.  In Georgia we only had all-day Kindergarten and Morgan felt like such a big girl!  Although the school was behind our sub-division, they encouraged everyone to ride the bus to school because traffic in the metro Atlanta area is horrible.  It was kinda cool, the bus stopped right in front of our house!

Emily and Ian continued to go to preschool where I was teaching and they learned a lot, did fun crafts and made many friends.  We were at Emily and Ian's three-year-old check-up when I overheard two nurses talking about what had happened to the World Trade Center.  The date was September 11, 2001 and I will never forget that day and the many lives that were lost and affected.  The sense of nationalism that was present in Georgia was unbelievable.  Everywhere I looked there was an American flag (cars, t-shirts, hats, sweaters, you name it).