In July 2007, Martha Moyer hosted a picnic at her Penn Forest home to celebrate the second birthday of her granddaughter, Kiana—who she has raised for the last 13 months while her daughter, Maria Pantella - 28, and her husband, Charles Leaber also 28, are serving in the military.

Maria and Charles were there—Maria’s first time in the US since she was deployed to Iraq in October 2006. It is the first time she has seen her husband, daughter or mother in over a year.

“It feels great to be back,” said Maria. “But it is definitely a big adjustment for me. Overwhelming!”

“When you are out there in Iraq,” she said. “This is going to sound terrible—but you have to sort of be numb and show no emotions so you can get through the mission. It is the only way you can survive out there.”

“If you start to think about things that are happening and dwelling on them, it gets rough—and when you come back here, it’s…,” she paused. “I cried. I couldn’t hold back. I cried because I missed my family so much and it didn’t really dawn on me until I saw them. It was overwhelming for me to feel that. I hadn’t felt it in so long.”

What Maria missed most of all was seeing her daughter, Kiana, between the ages of one and two. While she performed as Sergeant E-5 Pantella of the Army Reserves out of Honolulu, Hawaii, stationed with the Special Forces in southern Iraq, near Baghdad at the remote town of Balad, she missed her other role as mommy. During good period, she was able to talk to her mother daughter once a week. Then there were the other times when everyone waited for a phone call that did not come—and worried.

Maria grew up in rural Penn Forest Township. In 1999, she enlisted for six years with the US Army Reserves. After receiving degrees in Kinesiology and Business Management from Penn State University in 2003, she moved to Honolulu, Hawaii and transferred to the local Army Reserve unit there.

Continuing in the fields that she had studied, Maria continued to practice fitness—taking up Hawaii’s classic sport – surfing, and grooming her business skills working at Essentially Yours, a Honolulu lingerie shop.

While chatting with a girl friend, she learned that the girl friend’s brother, Charles Leaber, who worked on the company’s computer projects, was a former body-board champion, who was ranked fourth in the world in 1999.

Maria approached him asking asked him, “I’m really interested in body-boarding. I want to learn.”

Charles said, “Yeah sure. The guys go out every morning at six. We’ll swing by and you can go with us.”

After a few times out, Charles, feeling that Maria was ready for some real action, decided to fast-forward through the basics and took her to Waimea Bay—a beach with “a really big shore break and the waves don’t spill gently,” Maria recalls.

“That means the bottom of the wave stops while the top of the wave keeps going,” explained Charles.

“I wasn’t ready—it was a hard landing,” said Maria who dropped six feet, face first into the sand when the wave collapsed. “I was shaken, maybe in shock, but wasn’t injured.

“I yelled at Charles,” Maria said. “I didn’t return to the beach for several months. I was scared.”

For several months, the tensions were in the air over the incident. Charles offered to start again, only more slowly. “He got me back and made up for it by starting slow, with small waves,” said Marie. “I had to gain confidence in him mostly—and in myself.”

After six months, the surf pals began dating and married. In December of 2005, Charles enlisted in the Army National Guard in Hawaii. Maria reenlisted for another six years—she was six-months pregnant at the time. In June 2005, Maria gave birth to a 9 lbs., 15-inch healthy daughter, Kiana Elektra Pantella-Leaber.

Charles was called to begin basic training at Fort Jackson, SC in April 2006. Maria learned that she would be deployed to Iraq in October 2006. In June 2006, Kiana’s first birthday, Maria traveled from Hawaii to Charles’ graduation from Basic Training in South Carolina. Maria arraigned to meet her mother, Martha Moyer, at the graduation. Martha has been taking care of Kiana ever since.

“It was a shock after not taking care of little kids for almost thirty years,” said Martha whose daughters are 28 and 30. “Kiana is the kind of little girl that grows on you. You just love her. She is a wonderful child to take care of and has a wonderful personality.”

“Kiana goes to play group, Right from the Start,” said Martha. “I have make-up sponges in my shop. Kiana said, ‘Sponge Bob, Sponge Bob.’ So we put Sponge Bob stickers on them and handed them out to everyone in the playgroup.”

Maria’s tour is due to complete in October. Charles has yet to be deployed. Meanwhile, the family is spread to near-equal thirds of the world: Iraq, Pennsylvania, and Hawaii. What keeps the family together is the love of Kiana.