Military families go through a lot; that’s probably the understatement of the year. After all, not only do the men and women in our armed forces face challenges most of us can’t begin to even imagine, the families they leave behind have to face their own struggles while also carrying the weight of a precious member’s absence.
We can’t really quantify which particular military family has it “hardest”, or which individual situation is most tricky to navigate. We can all agree that they’re brave and deserve our gratitude, and that’s what really matters, right?
Still, there’s a special place in our thoughts for deployed parents and the little children they leave behind at home. Few things hit us right in the heart like kids missing their military moms and dads, and there’s nothing that can get us to tear up more quickly than a clip of their reunions.
And perhaps most especially? Military parents meeting their born-during-deployment infant sons and daughters. We’ve always admired the strength of women who give birth while their partners are overseas— and we’ve also always wondered how they maintain a connection between their husbands and the babies who are just barely getting to know them.
Well, one mom’s answer, and her baby son’s reaction to it, is going viral for its creativity and overall cuteness. Her solution? A doll.
Yes, a doll— specifically, a soft army doll made to look like baby Nathan’s deployed daddy. Mom Deanna Briscoe got the sweet stuffy from the website Daddy Dolls in the hopes that it would help maintain the brand-new connection between Nathan and his deployed father, Chase.
The loving wife and mother explained the idea to CBS News:
“Before my husband got deployed, he would put my son to sleep every single night [. . . Nathan] had a hard time falling asleep after he left, so I thought about getting a ‘Daddy Doll.'”
Briscoe explained “Daddy Dolls” are plush toy replicas of military dads, like stuffed animals that look like fathers in uniforms. She thought a “Daddy Doll” might help Nathan, who is now just over 6 months old, fall sleep.
“I saw there was an option to put a voice in it, and I decided to do that because any time my husband can call us, Nathan goes crazy over it,” the new mom said. She had her husband record a sweet message for Nathan and created the “Daddy Doll” for the infant with his dad’s voice inside.
Last month, when Nathan was just five months old, Briscoe gifted him with the doll and caught his priceless reaction on camera [. . .]
Briscoe, who is Australian and met her husband while traveling in the U.S., says the voice message inside the doll “basically says, ‘Nathan, Daddy loves you, I’ll be home soon.'”
“We give it to [Nathan] when he’s upset and when he hears my husband’s voice, he immediately stops like in the video,” she said. “And I put it in his crib every night.”
She didn’t expect the video of her son’s reaction to the doll to go viral. “I took the video to send to my husband,” she added. “I sent it to Chase right away, and he was like, ‘Oh my gosh, Nathan does recognize me.'” She put the video on Facebook so her husband’s family members, who live in Indiana, could also see the genuine, happy reaction from Nathan.
Is your heart already melting? Ours were, too. Now just wait until you see Nathan’s reaction for yourself in the video below!
How wonderful is that? It’s no surprise to us that this clip went viral, although apparently it surprised mom Deanna very much. She told Fox 13 news:
Briscoe says she can’t believe her baby’s sweet little video went viral. “We’re so overwhelmed with the love we’ve received and we just hope that all the military families out there get to be reunited with their loved ones soon,” she said.
We echo that hope. Thank you to Chase, Deanna and little Nathan for their service and sacrifice!
What do you think of the adorable video? Do you know anybody who has, or could use, a Daddy — or Mommy! — doll?