Although there are a lot of ways that a military family can go through life, we can often find that they’re rarely easy.
Because if that family has the opportunity to travel with a parent in the service, it’s hard for them to foster roots in a community or develop meaningful relationships with others since they have to move so often. And if the family can stay in one place, that usually means they have to go without seeing a loved one for months at a time.
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While there are some creative ways that soldiers and their supporters have tried to take that sting away, it’s easier said than done.
That’s why it’s always so affirming to see a soldier surprise their family when they return from deployment and the example we’re about to see today is wholesome even by that standard.
For the last 11 months, U.S. Army Sergeant Tamie Norris has been deployed in Iraq and Jordan.
And as Good Morning America reported , her daughter Samantha started her first teaching job at the Harmony School of Innovation in Austin, Texas.
Although they had previously discussed decorating her classroom together, the timing of Norris’ deployment made that impossible by the time her daughter started teaching first graders.
So instead, Norris decided to take a little trip to Samantha’s school and surprise her during class.
As we can see here, her daughter was shocked to see her and she soon broke down before Norris pulled her into a tearful embrace.
As Samantha said, “My kids were thrilled once they understood what was happening, of course. They have always been so curious about her, so getting to meet her and try on her gear was quite the experience!”
And it seems that Norris was just as excited to meet her daughter’s students as she had her own show-and-tell planned out for them.
Samantha mentioned that she let them try out her Army gear, but she also brought them some donuts and we can see that she read a book to them as well.
Samantha would post the footage of their reunion on Instagram, saying , “11 months too long without giving my mom a hug the best surprise, welcome home!!”
And as Samantha told it, her students sounded like they got a lot out of Norris’ presentation.
In her words, “I think seeing a strong woman in the military was a great girl-power moment. I even had one girl student say she wants to be ‘just like Ms. Norris’ mom’ when she grows up!”
h/t: Good Morning America
