“PAPA! PAPA!”

“I missed you so much! I didn’t know YOU were the surprise!”

A United States Army soldier back from a deployment, and stationed at Fort Bragg, gave his young son the thrill of a lifetime when he hid in a wrapped gift box, only to burst through it in the middle of the paper-ripping to joyously surprise his little guy.

While the family chose to remain anonymous for the story, they included a message on Facebook, which hosted the video you can view below.

“It’s such a blessing to have him back home! Having a deployed soldier is always hard for the family, [especially] when you have kids. My son was always asking when his daddy was going to return. He’s super close with his dad, and he was missing him dearly. When he opened the box and he realized it was his dad inside his voice broke down!”