Having a parent in the military is extraordinarily difficult to cope with as a child, especially when they’ve been deployed overseas. You obviously fear for your parents’ life and miss them terribly, and when you’re VERY young, it’s often difficult to fully understand where your parent has gone.

But, as difficult as this can be for kids across the country, it makes their parents’ homecoming even more special and emotional. That’s exactly what we get the privilege to see in the Newsflare video below.

These two adorable little girls have been really missing their dad, who’s been deployed to Afghanistan for three months. So when he had the opportunity to come home for a stretch of time, he decided to keep it under wraps and surprise his young daughters.

One night, mom calls the two little girls into the kitchen. It looks like the oldest daughter is four or five, and the youngest is around two — all we know for sure is that they’re both adorable!

Their mom tells them to stand in the kitchen facing her and instructs them not to turn around until she says so. She turns on the camera and captures their excited, smiling faces as they stand in the kitchen, waiting to find out why they have to stand turned away from the door.

Behind them, we can gradually start to make out the shape of someone approaching the screen door in the kitchen. As the person gets closer and closer, we start to make out the shape of a man — and we realize what’s about to happen.

Right as dad is about to open the door, the toddler disobeys mom’s orders and turns around. Even though she can now see that someone’s about to come in the house, it’s clear that she’s too young to really realize what’s going on. All along, mom is telling the oldest (whose name we find out is Gracie) to stayed facing her; Gracie is obviously old enough to recognize that her father has been gone and therefore the surprise will be extra special for her.

When dad comes into the kitchen, the toddler has already run to him, giggling all the way! Mom’s voice has begun to get shaky with excitement and emotion, so she finally says, “Turn around, Gracie, turn around!”

Gracie turns and immediately screams, “Daddy!” before running to her father’s side. Now holding his youngest on his hip and hugging his oldest with his free arm, this tired dad looks absolutely thrilled to see his family.

The most emotional part of all, though, has to be the girls’ mom behind the camera. She’s kind of laughing, kind of crying, and it really starts to get us misty-eyed just listening to how happy she is to see her husband! As if this video wasn’t already heartwarming, right?

What do you think of this military dad’s surprise and his daughters’ adorable reactions? Share your thoughts in the comments section below.

Credit: Newsflare/Lalat18