When war ends, violence stays alive. The roads toward peace and significance still lead nowhere. Perhaps the aftermath is the best time to blame those who refused to carry guns and take sides. How do you deaden the pain of trusting somebody who is trying to destroy you? How are you to know the difference when your enemy says he loves you? And so begins the battle for survival.

Some of us have that special person we are connected to long before we arrive in this world. Some of us have that special person we are connected to long after everyone else has forgotten them. This story is about such a person, my Dawn. The one I will always miss seeing standing on our porch and waiting for me to come back to Sarajevo, to come back home.

If a man pays his dues, is he ever out of debt? Are his past mistakes ever forgiven? In our struggle to protect the helpless, have we lost the ability to determine who is innocent? Gregory Torti may not have the perfect past, but learned from his mistakes and was ready to move on. The justice system has a different idea of him, and no matter the facts it is willing to cast aside reasonable doubt. Just as Gregory was ready to live the honest American dream, he is thrown into a battle for true freedom.

The term "terroir" is used to describe the flavor of the land. Although it is usually used to describe food, it grows in meaning when it is used to understand people and how they are a connected to their home. In 1992, what remained of the once diverse and peaceful Yugoslavia began to dissolve. The war that followed presented a picture that was much different than the normal depiction of good verses bad. The casualties ran deeper than the physical wounds and no one escaped unscathed. This is my story of a search for a new home and the separation from those I love... a story of being...