Leigh Ann Gibson, 24, sits at the computer anxiously waiting to chat on-line with her husband, Patrick, who is serving on the frontlines in Iraq. Her two children clamber onto her lap, fighting over who gets to talk to Daddy first. Exhausted because she’s seven months pregnant, this is the best part of Gibson’s day — reconnecting with the love of her life.

At five feet, two inches tall, Gibson’s petite frame doesn’t keep her from taking on the most challenging jobs. Right now, her most challenging job is caring for her two children, Jade, 4, and Ian, 2, while her husband has been overseas for six months on his second tour of duty. Her next challenge could be only a year away — serving on the frontlines of the battlefields herself.

Gibson is a member of the Texas Army National Guard, and she’s a combat medic — a soldier who is responsible for providing first aid and frontline trauma care on the battlefield. Although Gibson’s husband joined the Army after graduating from high school and had already completed his first tour of duty, the couple joined the National Guard together in August 2006.

Both are Commerce High School graduates. He graduated in 2001 and she did in 2002.

“We were high school sweethearts, and I wanted to join the Army with him,” she said. “However, he was in boot camp when 9/11 hit, and he knew he was going to have to leave. We talked about it, and he didn’t want me to join knowing that we would be going to war.

“People often ask him why he serves his country, and it’s solely because he wanted to serve his country. My reason to join the National Guard was for educational purposes.”

Gibson recalled the time when she was little and had a pair of shoes that were too tight, and she was afraid to ask for a new pair because she knew her family couldn’t afford them.

“I don’t want that for my kids,” she said. “Our goal is to never have an empty cupboard and have our kids happy. I couldn’t afford to go to college, but by joining the National Guard, my education was paid for.”

Gibson had two years of non-deployable status so that she can complete her education, and she has one year left before she could be deployed. She would, however, never be deployed while she was pregnant.

When Gibson joined the National Guard last year, she had to leave her husband and children for eight months to attend boot camp. Six of those months were spent at Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio to become a combat medic.

“Combat medics are the frontline of defense,” she said. “We’re driving with the soldiers, doing combat with them. We’re right there with them wherever they go. Being a combat medic is the hardest job, but it has its rewards. Now, I’m EMT qualified (and get a job anywhere.)”

When Gibson went away for military training, she said her husband went from an infantry man to a stay-at-home father. She said she was accused, however, of abandoning her family.

“But I never viewed it as that,” she said. “I made an eight-month sacrifice for my family that will dramatically change their lives. Eight months is nothing to compare to better their lives.

“Sometimes, the easiest way is the hardest way. Emotionally, however, it was the hardest thing I ever did.

“During basic training, the hardest part was thinking about my daughter at home crying or getting letters that said my son was now crawling and saying his first words. I knew I was missing so much.

“My husband and I have a saying, ‘To regret the past is to regret where you’re at right now.’ And I never regret joining. I joined knowing that I’ll get deployed someday — it’s just a matter of time. I know I may have to leave the family for a year, but I know my kids will never go hungry.”

With Gibson’s intense military training, she feels she can handle being on the frontlines.

“If I’m called, I’m ready to go to combat,” she said. “As a combat medic, they prepare us ahead of time of what to expect because they don’t want us to freeze up. But I don’t know how I’d react until I get there. My husband, however, says that he’d trust me with his life.”

Because of Gibson’s military training, she’s able to understand what her husband’s day-to-day life is like in Iraq.

“Before his first deployment, he’d promise me, ‘Baby, I’ll be back,’ and it made everything OK,” she said. “I believed him.

“This time when he left, he said the same thing. ‘Baby, I’ll be back.’ And I said, ‘As long as it’s not in a wooden box.’

“I’m more knowledgeable and more aware of what he does. He can’t outsmart me anymore. The civilian part never worried about him, but the military part knows better.

“Two years ago, he would’ve never told me that he was shot at or hit by an IUD (improvised explosive devise). Now, he knows better. He’ll confide in me and openly shares with me what goes on.”

While her husband is deployed, Gibson said she stays busy just being a mom. She also goes to Commerce every day to help care for her 12-year-old nephew, Brandon, and calls herself a soccer mom for her nephew’s team.

“I won’t say it’s a lot harder now that Patrick is gone, because I know what to expect,” she said. “But being pregnant is the hardest part, because I just don’t have the energy.”

Gibson’s son, Steven Patrick, is due the day before Christmas, and her husband will get a two-week leave to be home in time for the birth. And Gibson is counting down the days.

“I have 11 weeks before our son is due, and 11 weeks before he comes home,” she said. “I will be happy to finally see him.

“He is my life. I’m never without him. Everywhere I go, I think about him, and it’s the same for him. Our family is his drive.”