LEHIGH ACRES, Fla. — Going home for the holidays isn't always an option, especially for those actively serving in the military, but 20-year-old Amy Hernandez from Lehigh Acres made it home just in time.
Back in August, she enlisted in the Army and hasn’t seen her family since, so when she got the go ahead to go home for holidays, she didn’t believe it at first
Private Hernandez said, “Now, I’m able to go home? That’s crazy?”.
Private First Class Hernandez’s battalion is based in Virginia, 900 miles from home.
She joined the army for new possibilities, and on the way back, it even led her to new heights.
“I flew for the first time from Virginia to here. It was really weird I had a little motion sickness,” Hernandez said.
And to not feel too homesick, she said she calls her family as much as she can.
Her parents said their family feels whole again with her back.
“Five months without your daughter is a long time, so it means a whole bunch to us to come and spend the time with her... We don’t know where she’s going to go off to, so we don’t know the next time we’ll see her," her dad Travis Prince said.
Pvt. Hernandez wants to spend her two weeks at home just hanging with family, celebrating the holidays like no time has passed.
“It’s just good to have her here. To hug her and her smile and everything that comes with that,” both her mom and dad added.
Her mom also put new ornaments on their Christmas tree too just for Amy...army boots and a helmet.
Her mom Meliza said, "Trying to give her a lot of hugs and try to enjoy her as much as I can,” while Amy's home.
Pvt. Hernandez said, it’s hard to be away from family for so long, but she found another family in the army too.
"They become a family. Like even with sergeants and everything you kind of have like a bond too with the respect still there. We all respect each other,” Pvt. Hernandez said.
