Anissa Contreras grew up in Gilbert, Arizona, and attended Arizona State University.  She graduated from ASU in 1996 and worked as an IT consultant for Accenture for five years while searching for her soul mate.  She met her husband, Jeff Mersiowsky, while he was stationed in Fort Knox, Kentucky.  They were later married while he was stationed in Fort Hood, Texas.  Soon thereafter they had their daughter, Kaitlyn.  As fate would have it, Jeff was deployed to Iraq when Kaitlyn was just 2 weeks old.  Anissa was the family readiness group (FRG) leader during Jeff's company command in Iraq.

This book was written in anticipation of questions Kaitlyn might ask if she were able to understand that her daddy had gone to war.