We Love Fire Fighters

Yesterday on our walk to a friend's house, we came upon two firetrucks parked in the middle of the street. Turns out it was only a small kitchen fire, and no one was hurt, so we hung around and watched the action. One of the fire fighters gave Abe a junior fire fighter sticker. Then another let him wear her hat and then invited him onto the truck, which was still idling and rumbling loudly. Abe wasn't so sure about it. Lady fire fighters are the coolest.

See Mom? Here I am on the truck, being brave even though it's really loud and rumbly which is sorta freaking me out.

Seriously, not joking. Get me off this thing. Enough.

At a coffeeshop in our neighborhood that we go to sometimes, a group of fire fighters come in pretty regularly for drinks. They are almost always in the truck when they come. It makes me happy. They always give all the kids stickers and then stand around looking heroic and manly. Fire fighters rule.

One of our favorite books is New York's Bravest, about Mose the legendary fire fighter in New York City. We got it from the library a while back, and I couldn't stop crying the first time we read it. And then every time we read it. It always makes me cry. This winter when we were in New York, meeting the mother of one of the fire fighters who died at Ground Zero left me wrecked for the whole day. I wrote about it here.

On facebook today, as a lot of people are posting their memories and tributes of what happened 9 years ago, two posts stood out to me. The first is by a friend who is now living in Ethiopia:

To me, the most beautiful photos from 9/11 are those of NYC firefighters and citizens running INTO the World Trade Centers. ♥

The second is by my old high school friend from Pakistan:

Two things happened on 9/11-- Thousands of innocent victims lost their lives and thousands of family members were affected by the loss.... and second, the image of Islam/Muslims everywhere was ruined by crazy terrorists who were far from being muslim in the first place :(

At some point today, I hope to read this book with Abe. If you're looking for a good children's book about this day, I recommend this one. Highly.