'I’ll be home for Christmas': Military dad surprises kids at Austin airport
AUSTIN, Texas - Austin-Bergstrom International Airport hosted a special reunion Saturday night.
Stephanie Park’s husband, Scott, serves as a lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Air Force. He has been deployed overseas since May.
"They were anticipating 365 days," Scott said. "We told my kids R&R didn’t exist this time around, and they were just kind of bummed."
The couple and their three kids have been stationed in Hawaii but are originally from Texas. They decided to spend Christmas as a family in their hometown of San Antonio when they learned Scott could come home. They didn’t tell the kids he was coming.
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FOX 7 spoke to Scott right before he surprised them when they arrived at ABIA.
"Just to hold them is the one thing I’m looking forward to the most," he said. "Just hang out, just be with each other, that’s the biggest thing."
Saturday’s reunion brought tears - but happy ones.
"This means everything, I mean these kids have been through a lot these seven months so far, and they needed this, their little spirits lately, it’s just been really rough this past holiday season," said Stephanie. "It’s going to be a very good Christmas for us."