We are still actively working humanitarian assistance out here.  While I was gone to Kwal-E-Now and Bala Moghrab the team did a couple of HA projects and from all accounts, they went well.  Will do my best to get some pics from that posted later.  Remember, we need your help to make this happen.  Email me for more info or post a note on this blog and I will get back to you as soon as possible—barring any more 15 day excursions.  I will be going on leave soon and can hardly wait for that to happen, although it does come with a price.  The travel involved is borderline insane and then there is the saying goodbye again, which I can hardly stand the thought of, let alone the actual experience.  I honestly hate it.  I love my wife and kids and the separation just straight up sucks.  I would classify January 22, 2007 as one of the top 5 hardest days in my life.  That was when I got out of our van at Fort Riley and said goodbye to my awesome wife and three equally awesome kids.  To remember that just moves me, and I don’t like the idea of having to do it again in August.  Speaking of them, Have I mentioned how great they are?   You know my wife has been super about taking everything and getting it done, as well as doing even more to add to the kids’ life.  She also makes sure that I get a package on a routine basis, which itself is really cool.  It will be great to be home soon, even if only to return later and wrap this thing up.  After this is over, I don’t know what next, but I hope it has us staying in the community we are in right now.  Family and friends there have been great, and appreciation for a few close ones (Doug, Randy and others) is at an all time high, let me tell you.  Of course, after being here, I definitely have a slew of new buddies.  Some are guys that I may not have hung out with before, but we are all we have, so a bond does develop.  When I was in Farah, I gained some friends that I am happy to say that I will see again, one of them will be moving in to the town I live in now, so we will be neighbors.  Crazy.  Down here in Adraskan, I have some cool cats to work with too, and definitely call them fiends as well.