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For moms, dads, wives and husbands waiting, it's always scary and nothing returns to normal until their loved one is safe at home.

"The war is not over," Linda King, of Lower Salem, Fivecoait's mother, said."We still have moms and sons still apart."

While the rest of the nation deals with the biggest power blackout in U.S. history, a sluggish economy, West Nile virus, school openings, gas prices and a runaway computer worm, moms, like King, wait for sons and daughters to return from Iraq.

Remember Iraq?

It's been more than 100 days since President Bush declared an end to major combat in the Iraq war.

Communication is still difficult. Letters, a brief phone call, e-mail if they ever get a chance, are infrequent at best.

"When it really hit me is when I received a letter from Flint. We were having a garage sale. Somebody was mowing his lawn, others were playing in a local softball game," King said. "Many of our sons are being attacked every night. You feel guilty you are doing anything. They are fighting so we can do this."

Amid the daily distractions, families of American soldiers still serving in Iraq would simply like people not to forget.