In a small preschool classroom at the Montessori School in Bellevue, four-year-old Amirah Haque shared a quiet noon lunch with her father.

The two sat face to face, yet were separated by nearly 7,000 miles.

Amirah’s father, Imad Haque, awoke around midnight in Afghanistan where he has been stationed with the U.S Army since August. He logged onto a computer and connected with his daughter and wife, Stephanie Haque, through the virtual online phone system, Skype.

Amirah sat beside her mother during a special brown bag lunch at her preschool and spoke quietly to her father whose image appeared in real time on a laptop screen provided by a staff member at the Montessori School.

“Amirah’s father receives ongoing e-mails and updates from our school and when he learned about the Brown Bag Lunch Series in his daughter’s classroom, he expressed an interest in participating,” said Jayme Thornton, the assistant director of Bellevue Montessori School. “He may be half way across the world, but he’s still very involved in his daughter’s life.”

Throughout the months of November and December, the students in Amirah’s preschool class were given the opportunity to invite their parents to share lunchtime with them. Modern day technology made it possible for Amirah and her father to connect and join in the fun.

Digging through her bright pink lunch box, Amirah shyly held up her lunchtime treasures in front of the computer screen to show her father what she was eating. Stephanie Haque joined her daughter and the three chatted comfortably as if a computer screen and a war was not a barrier between them.

The family stays connected by using Skype several times a week.

“I think it’s a real moral booster for the (soldiers) that they can connect with their families back home and it’s great for the kids to get to see them,” Stephanie Haque explained, adding, “Modern technology is amazing.”

This is the second time Imad Haque has deployed to Afghanistan in addition to several deployments to Iraq, Eastern Europe and Africa.

“I really applaud the awareness that this part of the country has,” Stephanie said. “It’s nice that people are still paying attention to what’s happening over there because we are still at war.”

Imad Haque is scheduled to return to his station at Fort Lewis in March.

“The holidays are almost here, and then before we know it, it will be January and he will be coming home,” Stephanie said with a smile.