Editors note: Members of the Church serving in the military share a common bond of faith and hope. This experience of one family is representative of many.

Robin and Adam Lehmann are reunited after his 11-month deployment in Iraq, representative of many Church families separated during this and other conflicts.

ROCHESTER, N.Y. — There was an audible sigh of relief when Sara Lehmann stood before the Relief Society sisters of the Batavia Branch and said, "Adam is home."

It had been a long, anxious wait as Adam disappeared from the radar screen of family and friends after being deployed to Iraq.

Adam Lehmann, one of Chuck and Sara's nine children, serves as an infantry sergeant with the 101st Airborne Division. He was in Afghanistan in 2002, and served in Iraq from the beginning of the war throughout 2003.

He returned to the United States in January.

The family's greatest challenge after deployment was hearing on the news about soldiers being killed, and then waiting to learn the identity. "At first we were glued to the television, but then we had to stop watching," Sara said in reflection.

Adam didn't meet any members of the Church during the first few months while troops were preparing to for Baghdad. "Spiritually it was very challenging," he said. His formula was to stay very busy and pray a lot. He was there for 11 months without a break until a surprise two-week furlough home last November.

Unlike Adam's missionary experiences in the Idaho Pocatello Mission, where boldly proclaiming the gospel was a regular occurrence, American soldiers in Iraq were restricted from religious discussions.

"If we were asked, we could talk about Christian principles," Adam said. "We had to avoid controversy. . . do our job, and nothing more," he added.

"Everyone serving there was scared. There was a lot of adrenaline and anxiety," he said. "I prayed before every mission. After prayer, I always felt more ready to just get the job done.

"Wherever we were during the deployment, I had to stay busy with physical fitness, reading, anything to distract myself, or I would have been driven nuts with worry. Our assignments also kept us very busy."

The Airborne Division watched the explosions in the skies over Baghdad as the war began. Several days later, they went in. It was their job to clear the way for others. They were assigned a specific street sector to patrol. The tempo was fast-paced. Everything was busy, making each day a blur of activity. Risks were high, and the danger tremendous. They were to secure the airport, government quarters, dams, power plants and substations. They were also stationed at dangerous check-points.

Back home, the love, prayers, and support of family, branch members and friends of other faiths supported Adam.

Since Adam and Robin were reunited in January, they have shared in the strength gained in their trials. "I know that if it hadn't been for all the myriad prayers that were offered for me, the ending could have been very different," Adam said.

Adam has two other siblings who also serve in the military; a brother, Jamin, serving in Germany as a senior infantry sergeant, and a sister, Kathryn, a helicopter mechanic before her marriage.

"All of our nine children are strong in their own ways, and they have a great deal of respect for their older siblings. We've been knit together in love. We've worried about our children in the Armed Forces, and have prayed for them," Chuck said.

One day after Adam left for Iraq, Sara found one of her other sons in the bedroom crying. He was fearful that Adam would never return. Sara quietly comforted him by explaining, "feelings of fear are not from the Lord." She assured him that as much as they all loved Adam, the Lord loved him more, and that He would never let anything happen to him that would not be for his ultimate good.

While Adam was gone, his wife, Robin, was also supporting him with her love, faith and prayers.

During an extremely stressful time for her, she discovered that if she dwelled on her situation, she couldn't function. Like Adam far away, she kept extremely busy.

Robin came to feel that any service in the Church, whether filling an assignment, going to the temple, praying, or reading the scriptures, was consecrated to Adam's safety.

"The Spirit prompted me constantly when I needed to drop what I was doing, and pray for his safety," Robin said.

At first, she put her husband's name on a prayer roll in the temple. Eventually, she put the entire company on the prayer roll. Miraculously, only two men in the company died while Adam was there.

Since Adam and Robin were reunited in January, they have shared in the strength gained in their trials. "I know that if it hadn't been for all the myriad prayers that were offered for me, the ending could have been very different," Adam said.

"There is no point in whining about the circumstances in which you are placed. Besides, no one wants to hear about your complaints anyway," Robin quipped.