Wednesday, October 28, 2015

Oklahoma City National Memorial Site

We pulled into our next stop:

The National Parks Service and the Oklahoma City have partnered
on the site to remember the bombing on April 19, 1995.
The memorial is a beautiful place, 
and the boys wanted to earn a Junior Ranger badge.
 
We found the Site Ranger and started on the workbook.
The boys learned that there is a chair 
for each person who was killed in the bombing.
Smaller chairs represent the children who were killed.
Each chair has engraved on its base the name of a person who was killed.

The reflecting pond is the outline of the building hedged in by 2 walls.
One wall has written on it one minute 
before the bombing representing innocence.
The opposite wall has one minute after the bombing 
representing the beginning of healing and hope.

Underfoot asked a question about the families and how they healed.
What a golden opportunity to talk about love, healing, and eternity!
The families of the bombing victims had to learn to live and find peace.
We talked about how we believe we will see each other again after we die,
and if we are obedient to our covenants, we will be a family forever.
Death isn't the end of our family.
 
An American Elm tree sits on the property that was there when the bombing took place.
It was scarred and hurt but grew back bigger and more full than before the bombing.
The tree is called the Survivor Tree. 
It shows how we as individuals can be resilient to hardships in our lives
and to choose to be stronger.
The boys have talked about the tree since we've returned home.

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