Later this summer, my cousin Daniel (who lives in Cleveland), will be leaving for Israel to join the Israeli Army (his dream for the last 4 years. He graduates high school next month and has decided to make allia). My other cousin, Arik, grew up in Israel and is 19, left earlier this spring for the elite special forces unit. As my Aunt Judy says about her son Daniel, "Although we are proud of his passion for Zionism and happy that he will be fulfilling his dream after all these years, the distance and his 3-year army obligation are our main concerns. He is very certain and committed about his decision and more excited than nervous. He asks us often, 'Don't you want to live an extraordinary life? Is this all there is for you?' " After a three month intensive Hebrew course, he will go through his army assessment and become a soldier! "We certainly were never prepared for this and it's a whole new existence for us now. Just seeing pictures of Arik in his uniform holding an M-16 is so surreal and hearing the details about his training course -- crawling in mud, eating out of cans of food, 18 hour days with little sleep, running up hills with heavy sandbags, practicing throwing grenades and using teargas -- that's not the half of it." I echo Judy's words when she says "Please pray for him, Arik and soon Adam and Karin."