In the fall of 2018, Major Peter DeCrans was deployed to Kuwait. While not his first Army deployment, it was the first time he had been deployed since his two children were born, making it also the first time he had to leave them at home in Forest Lake, Minnesota.
As Kare 11 reported, Major DeCrans would spend the rest of 2018 and most of 2019 overseas, and with the 8-hour time difference, as well as the Army’s strict security protocols, he found it nearly impossible to talk to his family.
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Peter’s wife, Cierra DeCrans, said opportunities for communication weren’t any easier on the home-front.
“To be able to make a video was not something that I could every day,” she told Kare 11. “Dealing with the deployment and all the home stuff and everything you have to do was so hard.”
Unfortunately that meant the couple’s children, 7-year old son Zerick and 5-year-old daughter Petroula, weren’t able to talk to their deployed dad very often.
That is, until Christmas time when Cierra’s own dad offered up an incredible solution for their communication problems.
Around this time, the family had purchased a Ring doorbell, which is a doorbell that also functions as a video camera.
“My dad was like, one day, ‘Why don’t you guys go tell hi to your dad, you can use this function and he can see it over [in Kuwait],'” Cierra recalled. “It blew their little minds.”
During Major DeCrans’ 10-month deployment, he was treated to a sweet video almost every single day from his kids, courtesy of his family’s Ring doorbell system.
The delighted dad would watch the videos on his computer and send his children back his responses.
“It was huge,” he told Kare 11 . “When the kids went to school in the morning, they would just leave me a quick message in the doorbell kind of telling me about their day.”
In the videos, the children recall daily events to their dad — from what’s new in school, to Zerick learning how to ride a bike without training wheels.
However, some of the video messages are a little sadder, as the children understandably experienced moments of simply missing their dad.
In one, Zerick quietly tells his dad he really wants to see him soon, adding, “Please, I really want you to come back.”
In another, his little sister Petroula looks at the doorbell camera and says, “Dada, I love you so much.”
Zerick said that although he couldn’t see his dad, he knew he was able to talk to him that way and it made him feel “happy”.
“It was one thing that they could control,” mom Cierra added. “No one had to help them. No one had to do anything, they could just go over there and say something to their dad and it was a beautiful thing.”
Major DeCrans said watching the messages from his children was “the highlight of [his] day.”
The proud dad has since returned home from his deployment and has retired from the Army after 20 years of service.
The family publicly shared the story of their doorbell messages, as well as some clips of those messages, inspiring other military families to invest in their own Ring doorbells to stay connected during deployment.
After hearing about the DeCrans family, Ring announced that they will be showing their gratitude for “military, veterans, first responders and teachers” by offering those individuals a 20% discount on select Ring products.
h/t: Kare 11
