Mother returns from deployment, surprises her 2 kids at school

STAFFORD COUNTY, Va. (WJLA) — Two Virginia elementary students received a big surprise on Friday.

Around 3 a.m., Senior Master Sgt. Christian Johnson arrived home from her 4-month-long deployment.

When she arrived home, she slept in her guest bedroom as her husband got her kids ready for school. Her kids didn't know she was home until she surprised them at school that afternoon.

WJLA was at Park Ridge Elementary School to capture the special surprise in Stafford County.

“You are going to make me cry!” Johnson said when she was greeted by the school principal.

"We love your children!" the principal told Johnson.

Johnson’s son Cameron is a kindergartner at Park Ridge Elementary School in Virginia. Her daughter is in the third grade. She surprised them both.

“The teachers have been super, super helpful enabling them to get through each day like normal,” Johnson told WJLA.

We are a purple star school. We are all about the military family," said Keana Butler, theprincipal at Park Ridge Elementary. "We have counselors who are all about supporting our military kids. That’s who we are as a school.”

This is Johnson's fifth deployment in her 21-year career.

“We’ve been apart before as far as deployed, this is the first time she’s been deployed with us having kids. I know it’s hard for her,” said her husband, Christopher David Johnson.

“I was stationed in Baghdad, Iraq for the last four months supporting the NATO mission in Iraq,” said Christian Johnson. “It was great, but it is good to be home.”