Navy Sailor Reunites With Wife Who Brought An Incredible Surprise: His Newborn Daughter!

A brand new Navy sailor named Roger Rodriguez Paez recently had a surprise reunion with his wife, Ashleigh, that included his newborn daughter, whom he’d never met.

Ashleigh caught the heartwarming meeting on camera and shared it with Fox News Digital. She said she gave birth to Lyla Hadassah on Feb.1, while Roger was at Navy Boot camp in Great Lakes, Illinois. 

A week after Lyla was born, Rodger officially graduated and became a Navy sailor. So after getting her doctors’ permission, Ashleigh bundled up her little girl and flew to Chicago. He met her at the airport right after his ceremony wrapped up.

“When he saw us, he was running through the airport, and he gave me a hug,” Ashleigh told the publication. “And then I gave him Lyla … It was magic in his eyes.”

“I guess that’s super cheesy,” she added. “But he was just so blown away.”

Ashleigh admitted that she had a difficult delivery, and going through it without her husband was hard. She also hated feeling disconnected from him as she adjusted to becoming a new parent for that first week. So seeing her husband’s reaction was particularly meaningful.

“That was like a moment for me, watching him with her for the first time… because it kind of felt like I was a single parent, in a sense,” she shared. “So it was very much reassuring when I finally got them together, and he finally got to meet her, and then we could have moments together as a family.”

But Ashleigh said the distance was just as hard on Roger.

“This is a huge sacrifice for him, for him to go away,” she continued. “He’s not alone. You know, there’s other men in his division when he was graduating, going through the same thing… It’s just amazing what these Navy sailors and other military people do for their families.”

Ashleigh shared that the reunion was special for several reasons—not only did her husband graduate from the Navy and meet his daughter, but the Venezuelan native also became an official U.S. citizen the day Layla was born.

You can find the source of this story’s featured image here.