I am so excited to announce that SPC Josh Stuemke has FINALLY returned home to Fort Carson after a 9-month-long deployment overseas, along with the rest of the soldiers from the 497th Engineering Company, 52nd Engineering Battalion! Josh’s wife, Lydia, actually booked me to shoot Josh’s homecoming last MAY – before he even left! Talk about being totally honored! She wanted to make sure that every minute of the joyous reunion between Josh and their three beautiful children – Noah (6), Autumn (4) and 13-month-old Kate – who was only four months old when Josh was deployed – was captured. To make this homecoming even more special, Josh was able to deploy with his brother Joel and they both came home at the same time! Josh’s parents, Dawn and Rich drove 900 miles to welcome their sons home. It was a very emotional reunion, because Joel got to meet his two month old son Luke for the first time, and to see Sara (Joel’s wife) reunite with her husband! It was so wonderful sitting with Sara and Lydia as they waited to welcome their soldiers home!

Josh and Lydia were so adorable when they FINALLY found each other … It seems like all my clients lately take at least a few minutes to locate their soldiers in the sea of craziness at the redeployment ceremonies. Married for a little over six years, Lydia searched and searched for him and eventually enlisted the help of Joel to find him! When she finally did see him, she actually fist pumped (haha), it was such a sweet moment! Noah and Autumn recognized their daddy right away, but it took a few minutes for Kate to recognize the soldier she’d been watching on Skype the last nine months – and now she’s just absolutely enamored with her daddy!

So, so happy for the entire Stuemke family!! WELCOME HOME, Josh and Joel!! Enjoy their story! XOXO