ROXBURY TWP. – Jefferson School preschoolers Bennett and Ethan Rueter of Succasunna thought they were attending a holiday music sing-a-long at the Succasunna-based school Friday afternoon.
Well, they were, along with their classmates in the media center.
So there they were, dressed the same, and sitting on the laps of teachers Rebecca Hutsebaut and Suzanne Flammer, watching the screen, singing along, sort of, with their classmates.
Suddenly, their dad, James, snuck up behind them, reached down and said “Hi, guys.”
Instantly surprised, Nathan hugged his dad, and asked if he was “home from the desert.” Excited, Bennett, meanwhile, quickly hugged his dad, and then proceeded up the line of sitting peers, hugging them and teachers.
“The kids didn’t know their dad was home,” Principal Melissa Cosgrove explained just moments before the surprise visit occurred.
“They are two twin boys in our preschool program. The teachers set this all up. The mom (Samantha) called the two preschool teachers, and asked if they could surprise the boys in school,” Cosgrove explained.
The idea was hatched to surprise the boys in the media center, during the holiday sing-a-long, Cosgrove said.
Deployed in the National Guard in Jordan, James Rueter has been away for almost a year.
Cosgrove said it wasn’t much of a challenge, as the littler students don’t ask a lot of questions. It was to be just a routine Friday activity at the school.
But, there was dad, in uniform, hugging his boys, as teachers wiped tears from their eyes. Most of the other students didn’t seem to quite get what was going on, but the twins did.
“Did you bring us any presents?” Nathan asked, hugging his dad, whom he hasn’t seen in a year in-person. James said that through Wifi available on his military base and facetime on the Internet, he kept in tough with the boys.
The couple’s third child, a baby named Mason, looked at his dad like he was seeing him for the first time, however.
“The baby has changed the most. He was five months old when I left,” he said.
There were more smiles and hugs than tears, as their father explained to the boys what was going on.
“I’m home for Christmas. No more desert,” he said.
That was about the time Bennett began his round of the room, hugging everyone in sight.
Rueter said he spent eight months, 24 days in Jordan, but his total deployment was 325 days; just under a year.
“They got really big since I last saw them, especially the baby,” he said.
Reuter, a sergeant, said he was dealing with flight delays and kept hoping the whole time he’d be home in time to surprise his sons at school.
“I didn’t know exactly when I’d get back, but we wanted to do it in school,” he said.
So, he arrived Thursday night, after the twins had gone to bed, and he hid – spending the night in a spare bedroom before Friday’s visit at 1 p.m.
He’s a member of the National Guard, and said his next deployment might not be for a few years.
Prior, he was a counselor at Daytop N.J. in Mendham.
Now, he’ll look for a new job.
But first, he plans to spend some time with the family into the new year.
Asked how he tells the boys apart, his answer was fast and simple: their personalities.
He said he spent most of his time overseas in the desert, where temperatures reached 116 degrees. He said it was a dry heat, though, and said that down south, the coast area was cooler.
He said the capital city, Amman, was modernized, but said that the closer you got to the Syrian border, the more barren it became.
For now, he’s just glad to be home.
Asked what his first plans were, he didn’t hesitate.
“We’re going to Jersey Mike’s Subs tonight.”
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