APPLETON, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) – Mary Niedland and her two sons haven’t seen ‘dad’ in months.
“We want daddy to come home,” the two told Mary when she asked what they want for Christmas.
Her husband, Troy, has been serving with a marine unit in Japan for several months.
“He’s been deployed and he hasn’t seen our kids since April so today we are surprising them by daddy coming home,” said Mary with a grin.
She says the summer was hard on her family while Troy was away.
But that changed Saturday night. Mary telling FOX 11 she’s nervous.
“I have the butterflies so bad, I don’t know how the boys are going to react because they have no idea. I’m excited, I’m nervous I’m so ready for it.”
She adds that with a little luck, Troy was able to come home early, just in time for the holidays. But she wanted to surprise their two sons, Drake and Harvey, in the Houdini Plaza Saturday night.
Mary worked with the Trout Museum while it held its annual ‘Light Up Appleton’ event, planning for Troy to show up while the kids were writing their letters to Santa.
Drake wrote his letter to Santa asking if his dad could come home for Christmas.
Little did he and his brother Harvey know, their wish would be answered sooner than later.
“Honestly none of it really felt real until right in this moment when I walked in the tent,” said Troy.
Mary found out he was coming home just a few weeks ago.
Troy tells FOX 11 it’s all very emotional.
“You don’t realize how much you miss until you’re gone for that amount of time. Just as an example when I left Harvey, the younger one, he was still babbling. And now he can string full sentences and talk.”
Niedland says he understands and appreciates that not every person who serves, gets to see their families this time of year.
