That Thursday morning in October began normally enough. I awoke with a thousand plans for the day, grateful that I was up early enough to grade a few papers before the children got up. As I passed through the living room, I remember greeting the pale dawn sky glimmering through the upper windows. A whisper of gratitude nudged my heart. My life as a full-time wife, home-schooling mother of three, and part-time college English instructor was extremely hectic and relentless, but it was exactly what I wanted.
Unfortunately, that life would be gone forever in the next fifteen seconds.