A day to Remember

*Witnessing History*

January 20, 2009: Looking back at this day and remembering living in Omaha Nebraska as poor college students, I will be grateful I was able to witness this day: Watching the first African-American become president. Jantsen and Kambryn and I watched as Barack Obama became the 44th president of the United States. It definitely is a day to remember. I am proud to be an American and I am grateful to live in this wonderful nation that gives my family the freedoms and opportunities that we enjoy!

"With a hand on Abraham Lincoln’s inaugural Bible, and before a crowd stretching across the National Mall, Barack Obama became president of the United States Tuesday. "Starting today, we must pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off and begin the work of remaking America," the new president said in his inaugural address." -Omaha World Herald News 2009

"So let us mark this day with remembrance, of who we are and how far we have traveled. In the year of America's birth, in the coldest of months, a small band of patriots huddled by dying campfires on the shores of an icy river. The capital was abandoned. The enemy was advancing. The snow was stained with blood. At a moment when the outcome of our revolution was most in doubt, the father of our nation ordered these words be read to the people:

'Let it be told to the future world ... that in the depth of winter, when
nothing but hope and virtue could survive... that the city and the country,
alarmed at one common danger, came forth to meet [it].'

America. In the face of our common dangers, in this winter of our hardship, let us remember these timeless words. With hope and virtue, let us brave once more the icy currents, and endure what storms may come. Let it be said by our children's children that when we were tested, we refused to let this journey end, that we did not turn back, nor did we falter; and with eyes fixed on the horizon and God's grace upon us, we carried forth that great gift of freedom and delivered it safely to future generations."

I hope that President Obama can make wise and righteous decisions that will rebuild our wonderful nation and bring hope and peace back into the lives of Americans.