FORT BRAGG, N.C. — Eric Morski has been deployed in Nepal for six months.
"Some days I felt like I just want to give him a hug but I realize he's all the way across the world and I can't," said Iliana, Eric’s 10-year-old daughter.
Iliana had only one request for Santa this year.
8,000 miles away and six months apart – she just wanted, needed to hold her dad again.
During their ritual evening Facetime on Thursday, Iliana noticed something seemed different.
"I said I got back to my hotel and there's a weird dog here and as you saw in the video her wheels are going to spinning thinking, 'Wait that is my dad and my dog,'” Eric recalled.
"I was just confused by the whole thing and then once I realized that's my dog and my couch and my dad I realized he's home," Illiana said.
It's enough to make the toughest soldier crumple.
"I've been traveling for about 30 hours at that point and I had all the energy in the world I was tearing up, I was a ball of emotions,” Eric said.
So was Iliana's mom Meredith – who's behind the camera.
"When she realized he was here she went running down the stairs, I'm crying trying to chase her holding the camera," Meredith said.
And just like that -- Iliana's Christmas wish came true.
"It was everything I had hoped, I missed him so much that even just a small little hug just warmed and made me happy," she said.
"As a parent, just seeing that sheer joy, that's a child's love," Eric said. "That's a once-in-a-lifetime feeling when your child truly just nothing attached you know how they feel and how much you mean to them."
Meredith, like Iliana, is over the moon.
"Our world is complete now with dad back,” Meredith said.