Everyone knows that members of the United States military make big sacrifices when they put their lives on the line to serve their country overseas. What many don’t realize, however, is that their families make enormous sacrifices as well. Families are separated from their loved ones for months at a time and the time spent apart can be difficult. It’s always so heartwarming to see reunions of military families.

A video is going viral this week showing a soldier surprise his kids at elementary school in Tennessee after he had been away for nine months. Justin Bunch’s eight children did not expect him to be home until June, so this was a huge surprise for them!

“Keeping this from the kids was really hard,” said Justin’s wife Kasey. “I was shaking because I knew that they were going to be so excited because they thought he wasn’t coming in until June.”

Before Justin’s got home, Kasey sat down with principal Kim Turner at Bay Ridge Elementary school to ask how they could pull off the surprise homecoming. Together, they decided to have Justin dress up as the school’s mascot, Twister the Tiger during a school assembly. Once the students were in the gym, Kim called up the Bunch kids, who gave Twister high fives as they walked up next to him.

Finally, when all his kids were next to him, Justin removed his tiger head and surprised them.

“When I saw him take the hat off, I went ‘Oh my God’ and I just ran. I wasn’t thinking; I was just running,” said Justin’s son Chad. Everyone in the room was in tears as the reunion happened before their eyes!

“There wasn’t a dry eye in the room,” Kim said. “I was expecting it and I was trying to prepare myself for it but it was very special. I was happy to be a part of it.”

Justin could not have been happier with how the surprise turned out.

“These are my kids,” he said. “This is my family so it means a lot.”

Watch the reunion for yourself below!