I found the last two paragraphs of a CNN story about the freed Colombian hostages very touching. It goes without saying most of us take a lot of things for granted every day. Family should never be one of them.

Captivity also separated Howes from his wife and two sons.
"Before this [I] was a guy that was kind of a typical American guy that was working, busy working, running through a life full-speed," he said. "I had a little boy when we crashed that was 5 years old, another one 15. Had a wife who was back in the States; we just got a house. I had 12 nights in the house of my dreams in the States," he said.

"And suddenly, we drop off the face of the Earth."
He said, "When you're in our situation, we realize what's important. We know. The three of us know better than any of you guys out there, it's the family. And I'd like everyone to listen very closely to that."