A cardboard box in a school office usually just holds forgotten lunches or paperwork. But for a second grader in Greensboro, North Carolina, it held a genie lamp and the one thing she wanted most in the world.
Bella Meyers hadn’t seen her mom since March. Her mother, Kiana Curos, is a Staff Sergeant in the Air Force, and she had been stationed overseas for months. When Bella was called down to the front office at her elementary school, she didn’t know what to expect.
Instead of an errand, they handed her a box. Inside was a genie lamp. It was a sweet nod to the movie Aladdin, which happens to be one of the movies she and her mom love watching together. Bella held the lamp, and she knew exactly what to ask for.
“I miss my mom really, really much,” Bella said. “I say what I really, really want, it’ll give me the wish.”
So she made her wish. Then the door opened, and her mom walked right in. Bella was completely stunned. She broke down into tears of joy. “She opened the door. I was so surprised,” the little girl said. Kiana had only found out about her Air Force homecoming two weeks earlier. For Kiana, all the time away vanished the second she saw her daughter’s face.
“Seeing how she had grown so much, how she’s missing two front teeth, it all just came, like, flooding and rushing back,” Kiana shared.
The surprise reunion gave them a few precious days together. But it was what Bella said later that really caught Kiana off guard. She wasn’t just happy to get a hug. She understood the weight of what her mother does every day. Bella talked about her mom’s sacrifice, saying, “All the work for her that she needed to do for me, she gave it [to] me, and if I have a daughter, I’ll pass it on to her.”
Hearing her young daughter say that meant everything to Kiana. “It’s very reassuring to hear, you know, the impact that you have on your child,” the Staff Sergeant said.
Kiana and Bella were finally able to hug each other after months of waiting. At the same time, there are thousands of other children still waiting for that warm hug. Right now, there are over 170,000 American service members stationed overseas. Words just fall short when we try to describe the sacrifice these military families make. They long for the same things we do: time with their loved ones, and the chance to be there for birthdays, school plays and bedtime stories. But they pack up and leave their precious families behind to serve this country.
We can’t step in and give them all the love and comfort they need when they are separated. But we can do one powerful thing. We can pray. We can pray for our service members and their families. Let us ask God to hold them in His mighty hands, give their families peace and strength, and bring every one of them safely home.
WATCH: Air Force Mom Surprises Daughter at School in Tear-Jerking Reunion
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