Military dad surprises Jeffersonville kindergartener

JEFFERSONVILLE, IN (WAVE) - Bridgepoint Elementary School kindergarteners are learning about how to ask "good" questions. Several classes gathered in the school gym on Friday to practice.

"We have been doing a mystery box this week," one teacher said.

The purpose of the lesson is for the students to ask questions that help the class figure out what's inside the box.

"Is it lots of bags?" one student asked.

"Is it a big piece of wood?" another student asked.

"Is it a human?" another student in the gym asked. That answer was partly correct.

"Is it a boy?" Kalyn Niehaus asked.

Kalyn was correct, but little did she know it was a "boy" she knew.

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A teacher instructed Kalyn to pull back the curtain on the box. Behind it was her father, Jacob Niehaus. The two hadn't seen each other in a year because Jacob had been overseas in Bahrain with the U.S. Coast Guard.

Jacob Niehaus said technology has kept his family connected, but still there's nothing like a hug in person.

"I've done a lot of stuff over the last year that was pretty nerve-wracking and stuff like that, but that was one of the most nervous moments waiting for her," Jacob Niehaus said.

"We kind of really wanted to surprise her so she had no clue," Melinda Niehaus, Kalyn's mother, said.

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