After an eight and a half month deployment in Iraq, a military dad returns home to surprise his family of four at their school Thursday.
“I got butterflies in my stomach,” United States Army Specialist Joshua McKee. “It’s like I never met my kids, but I’m meeting them again all over again. So I’m excited.”
McKee flew into Lubbock Thursday morning after reporting back to his post at Fort Campell in Kentucky. He said he and his wife Biatriz have been planning this surprise for their kids the last few months of his deployment.
“Just being able to hold them, that’s it,” McKee said. “I haven’t held them in forever. That’s my life, that’s why I do what I do, is for them.”
The couple had the help of the entire Wheelock Elementary School for the big moment. Their 5th grade daughter Diamond and kindergartner son Javoni were told they were rehearsing a school performance with their classes, as their dad hid in a neighboring room inside the school’s auditorium.
“These people are precious,” Wheelock Principal Cindy Andrews said. “They’re precious in our Wheelock community just to share in the love you know they’re feeling and being able to be together and be apart of that was monumental.”
Just before 2 p.m., camouflage walked across the stage to surprise their kids during a game of Simon Says.
“It’s surreal,” McKee said. “The butterflies just got even worse in my stomach it felt like meeting my first love, these kids are everything to me, all three of them. It’s the reason i do what i do because of them.”
“I’m retiring this year so to end my career with a celebration like this, a family is what my career has been about it’s about these kids and that just makes it all worth while,” Andrews said.
The family of five will spend a few weeks in the Hub city before he returns to his post in Kentucky.
