The contemporary American family is one that shows a perfect lifestyle, filled with happiness and normality, but this normality can be challenged by anything. The current war in which our country is engaged is a factor that has changed the lives of many families since its beginning. Husbands, sons, and sometimes even mothers and daughters are leaving their homes to fight in the war against Iraq. If the traditional American family consisted of a husband, wife, and two or more children living in the suburbs, my family could have easily represented it once upon a time. However, when our country went to war, my father's military career carried him thousands of miles across the ocean, disrupting almost every aspect of our once nearly perfect home. Most of my life I have had a very comfortable and carefree lifestyle. I was raised by both parents in a nice house just outside of a fairly large town; we lived there for almost eleven years of my life until we moved to a bigger house in another part of town. My mother became pregnant after we moved into our new house and we quickly celebrated my sister's arrival. After my sister was born, our family seemed to change in some ways. I noticed my parents becoming more involved in both of our schools and doing more parenting things. Both my parents really sorted out what little wild youth still remained in them; our family was becoming very contemporary and most quaint families were considered normal. My mother didn't work, but instead stayed home and did the housewife thing while raising my sister and me. My father has a job in the military, which often calls for him to be placed across the country for a few days at a time, but never for long. I remember the day I learned that my father had to leave for Iraq. It hit me with different emotions. I was sad for my father and our family, but I was also shocked because I never thought this would happen to me and my family. My mother didn't take it well. She was very upset because my father was going to have to leave. Even though we knew that my father, given the position he is in, would probably avoid a lot of fighting, we were still scared, angry, and confused as to why this was happening to us. We understood that our country needed my father, but at that time it was difficult to find much patriotism. We had a few weeks left before my father left. We didn't know when he was coming back or what he was going to be able to come home with. It was an unexpected but wonderful surprise. When my dad came back, things almost immediately went back to how they were when he was there, which was nice, but at the same time, my mom was doing things that she really had never done before. This change in my mother continued even when my father returned. At first he had a hard time adjusting to my mother's new career, but everything went well. The experience I had with my father leaving is one that many families face. Not all families are so lucky, due to their father leaving the family to go fight in a war or some other reason, most are just deadbeats and leave for their own personal reasons. My father's departure shook our family at first, transforming what we had always known into something entirely different, but over time we realized everything would be okay. We.