Teens usually wake up, eat breakfast, mumble a few things to their parents before going to school in the morning. Not all teens get to see their parents every day, though.

  Sophomore Ariel Cliburn hadn’t seen her mother since her mother’s second deployment almost ten months ago.

  That changed on April fourth during her lunch period when Assistant Principal Josh Smith called Cliburn up to the front of the cafeteria saying that there was a surprise for her.

  The moment Cliburn saw her mother, Cliburn walked towards her, meeting in a big embrace.

  This came as a surprise to Cliburn, as she thought her mother was still in Afghanistan.

  “I didn’t even know that she was like back because you [have to go through debriefing],”  Cliburn said.

  Cliburn’s mother waited in Ft. Hood, TX until she was able to come home to her family to surprise them.

  “I just wanted to to come home and surprise them rather than them surprising me,” Christina Cliburn said. “So I just wanted to it to be special. I just wanted to be able to have that instead of them giving it to me because they’ve sacrificed a lot too. I wanted to let them know how important they are to me.”