CALDWELL -- A local family is fighting the war in Iraq with balloons, more than 2,000 of them so far.

Dennis and Sharon Horst, of Caldwell, started sending balloons to their son when he first arrived in Iraq this January. Christopher Warren, stationed out of Ft. Bliss, Texas, makes balloon animals for Iraqi children in the Balad, Iraq hospital.

The Horsts say Warren started making the colorful creatures for his own three children.

Warren -- a radiology technician -- wrote in a February e-mail to his parents that his talent with balloons helped break down barriers with the injured Iraqi children.

"We had no way to get them to understand we were not here to hurt them since all their lives they have been told we are the enemy," Warren said. "I pulled out my bag of balloons and went to work."

Warren also told of a 14-year-old patient named Mariwah.

"She is paralyzed from the waist down from a rocket attack," Warren wrote in the February e-mail message. "When we got here and took over the hospital, she never smiled."

Warren said he taught Mariwah to make her own balloon animals.

But the number of injured children has taken a toll on Warren's balloon supply. He traveled to the country with 1,500 balloons, and his parents said they have mailed another 500 to 600.

"He sees children daily," Sharon said, adding that the work of her son proves there is more to the situation in Iraq than what most people see in the news.

"He always seems to be in good spirits," Dennis said.

Find more at the Idaho Press-Tribune.