Blindfolded Son Doesn't Realize His Deployed Father Is Waiting Behind Him

Dec 18, 2019 by apost team

For families who have members in the service, seeing their loved ones regularly, let alone during the holidays, can be difficult. Depending on their deployment situation, they may not even be able to contact them, causing the season to be a bit less jolly. Luckily for a family in Indiana, Christmas came a bit early. National Guard member Paul Roell was stationed in Kuwait, and surprised his son with an early christmas.

WXIN in Indianapolis reports Paul hadn’t been home since the year before and wasn’t expected home until January of 2020, the Roell family assumed he wouldn’t make it home for the holidays. Fortuitously, Roell and was given flight arrangements to spend time with his family.

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Once Paul’s wife Stephanie heard the news, she decided it would be best to surprise her children with their father’s return, they told WXIN. As she hid Paul in the house while planning the surprise, Stephanie spoke with her eldest son Ian’s school about planning a homecoming ceremony.

Once the surprise was arranged, Stephanie brought Ian and his sister Hailey to the school with the understanding Ian would be receiving an award.

As the students made their way into the gym, Stephanie and Paul waited to pull off their holiday surprise. The plan was to see if Ian could guess which teacher was behind him while blindfolded.

As Paul stood behind Ian, the audience watched in anticipation as Ian removed his blindfold. After embracing Paul, the entire family walked up and had a moment. After almost a year of separation, they were a family again.

Can you imagine how it felt to be reunited with a deployed family member during the holidays? Do you have a similar holiday story? Be sure to join the conversation, recommend this story with family and friends, but most of all, have a happy and safe holiday.