Obstacle Course Leads Boy To Military Bonus Dad After Deployment

A 10-year-old boy got an incredible reward after completing an inflatable obstacle course – crossing the finish line to discover his military bonus dad had returned home from a 10-month deployment. Deacon Truax, from Holt, Michigan, hadn’t seen bonus dad Anthony Almazan, 34, for almost a year while the United States Army Reserve staff sergeant was deployed to the Middle East. To Deacon and his biological twin sisters, Adalyne and McKenna, both aged nine, Anthony is like a father, as he stepped into their lives around four years ago, their mom, Lindsay, 37, said. Anthony's time overseas was also the kids' first experience of one of his deployments, making it extra tough on Deacon, his sisters, and their bonus sister, six-year-old Isabella, Anthony's daughter. But it was Deacon who struggled the most: he is the only boy in a house of four girls when Anthony is away, and every night he slept with a Build-A-Bear Anthony had given him. Each milestone of the deployment the family would video call Anthony overseas – but it was never quite the same. And so, when Lindsay discovered her boyfriend was set to return home in the summer, she started working on a surprise reunion for the kids. She decided to host an army-themed birthday party for the twins on July 8, for which she rented an inflatable obstacle course.

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