No place like home, isn’t it true? This is particularly true for those deployed with the military. To be away from their families is hard for them. Husbands, wives, mothers, fathers, children… the list is endless. In active duty, many military fathers miss important milestone events.
First teeth, first steps and sometimes even the day their kids are born are missing. Skyler Cooper-a member of the National Guard of the Kansas Army-served seven months in Kuwait, away from his wife Cydney and their two young sons, Leighton and Corbett.
Cydney Cooper, who was pregnant with twin girls, had been expecting her husband to come home in late spring, according to a post on the Facebook page Her View From Home.
When the mother came down with the flu at just 33 weeks, she gave birth prematurely. Emma and Kyla, both babies, had to stay in the NICU. Because she had two kids at home, she had a lot of back and forth to do when Cooper was released from the hospital.
Of course, it was particularly hard with her husband away. Cooper was so stressed. At that point she said she was “sticking on a string,” but the best surprise ever came. While sitting in the hospital with a baby girl in her arms, the exhausted wife and mother received a text from her husband asking how the newborns were.
Moments later, who walked in the room but Skyler Cooper himself! With an American flag balloon and flowers in hand, he stunned his wife — something he’d been planning for a couple of weeks.
Her response is everything. Watch as she tears up; this is the greatest gift she could ever have been given. Grab the tissues, this one is sure to tug at your heartstrings.
“I was in shock,” Cydney Cooper said to Good Morning America. “I felt like I had to almost take a breath again. I had been bouncing around so much between our boys and the girls, I was also relieved.”
The tears of joy and thankfulness didn’t stop there, either. Together, the Coopers were able to stun their two older boys. You can almost hear Cydney Cooper getting choked up behind the camera.
The military wife shared her feelings about her husband’s surprise return on Facebook. “1 year of crazy,” she began.
“1000s of miles, 1 solo pregnancy and delivery, 48392 Skype calls, some superheroes, a few plane rides, 12 NICU days, tons of help from family and friends, and many tears later,” she wrote, “A soldier came home.”
The memories are amazing, surely ones this family will treasure forever.
“It was an incredible moment to see him meet his daughters for the first time,” Cooper told GMA. “We just want to get them home now.”
This family will be in our prayers. We hope Kyla and Emma will be home soon, then everyone can be exactly where they belong.
