A Soldier’s Service in Iraq Leads to a Custody Battle at Home - NYTimes.com

A Soldier’s Service in Iraq Leads to a Custody Battle at Home - NYTimes.com: "TEANECK, N.J. — During the 10 months she was deployed in Iraq, Leydi Mendoza, a 22-year-old specialist in the New Jersey National Guard, did everything she could think of to ease her longing for the year-old daughter she had left back home.

Ms. Mendoza's daughter, Elizabeth, who was a year old when her mother was deployed.

A picture taken on her baby Elizabeth’s first Christmas was tucked inside the camouflage patrol cap she wore while guarding prisoners at Camp Cropper in Baghdad. Several times a week, she would phone her former companion, Daniel Llares, who was caring for their daughter, aching as she heard her little girl’s vocabulary grow from babble to phrases like “I miss you” and “I love you.”"