It is heartwarming to read success stories of long-distance relationships. They say that distance makes the heart go fonder. This is true for this couple who had to live separately because of their line of work.

Joshua Splinter works as a Family Physician for the Texas Army National Guard. He and his wife had to deal with the long-distance since he was stationed in Djibouti, Africa. His wife who is also a doctor lives in Texas which is about 8,500 miles away from him.

One day, Joshua decided that it is time to give her a pleasant surprise. After 5 months of being stationed in Africa, he finally got the news that he can go home. He was very excited to pack his backs and fly back home to his wife, but he knew that Alice deserved something better than that. While he was away, she had been working hard to finish her residency program.

Little did she know, her husband has a surprise prepared for her. So this army medic decided to visit her at her doctors’ office. She is a pediatrician and he knows that she will be in her clinic when he arrives.

To pull off this surprise, Joshua needed to pose as a new patient while waiting at his wife’s clinic. He was transported back home by military aircraft. It was a long 40 hours flight but he did not care. What made all this difficult was the difference in timezones. He was forced to lie to her while they were chatting. He would say that it was his bedtime when in reality, they were then in the same timezone!

Joshua made sure that she recorded this once in a lifetime moment. He arrived at his wife’s clinic. In his video, he said, “I’m totally hyped. I’m way more nervous than I thought I would be.”

To make this plan a successful one, he asked his friend for help. This friend is one of Alice’s colleagues. Thankfully, the friend is more than happy to help with his epic surprise. The friend admitted, “I’m so excited!”

As caught in the video, a woman opens the door. They thought that they got caught but thankfully, it was just one of the nurses in the clinic. So the friend briefed the nurse. He followed her to go and get Alice.

A few moments later, the friend came back into the room. The friend can be heard telling Joshua, “I’d like you to meet Dr. Alice.”

Alice walked in and said “Hi” for a brief moment until she laid eyes on him. In less than a second, complete surprise can be seen on Alice’s face! She just let her clipboard fall to the floor as she moves to give her husband a huge hug. Finally, they are back in each others’ arms.

Serving the military is not going to be easy, especially for families. That’s why reunions like this never fail to touch our hearts deeply. It is heartwarming to see how Joshua went out of his way, traveled 40 plus hours across the globe, to make this reunion a memorable one. That huge smile on her face and the bear hug she gave him is a good indication that all of his efforts were all worth it.