Wife of Central Texas soldier springs a big surprise as husband returns from 7-month deployment

LORENA, Texas (KWTX) - A National Guard soldier from Lorena got the surprise of his life when he returned home from a seven-month overseas deployment to find out his wife was eight months pregnant with their fourth child.

James Tilton, a physician’s assistant at Baylor Scott & White Hillcrest Medical Center, deployed at the first of November.

His wife, Lindsey, found out she was pregnant just a week later, but she kept the pregnancy a secret until James arrived last Thursday at Waco Regional Airport.

That’s when he learned Lindsey was 33-weeks along with their baby boy.

The couple’s three kids, Christopher, 8, Tilly, 5, and Penny, 1, held up a sign to greet their dad which read ‘Surprise! 29 weeks deployed. 33 weeks pregnant.”

The sign also included a sonogram.

When James first read it, he thought the kids were joking.

He continued hugging and kissing his kids and wife until he finally looked down at Lindsey’s growing belly.

“I’m not joking!” Lindsey laughed as she embraced her belly.

James spent the next minute putting his hand on his wife’s belly to make sure it was true and to his complete shock, it was.

“It was a huge surprise to come home to but really fun and I’m thankful she did it the way she did it,” James told KWTX.

Lindsey said she almost broke down and told him a few times including at Christmas and on another random day.

“The one time I thought about telling him we weren’t able to talk that entire day which was rare,” she said.

“I took that as a sign that I was doing the right thing.”

But to keep the news a secret from James, Lindsey knew she couldn’t tell her kids.

While they had some suspicions about their mom’s belly, Lindsey didn’t spill the beans until the kids got out of the car last week at the airport.

“Tilly told her teacher that she thought I had swallowed a watermelon seed,” Lindsey laughed.

“They were ecstatic to find out at the airport that it was, indeed, a baby in my belly, not just a watermelon seed.”

The couple hasn’t picked a name yet for their baby boy who is due in July.

“I’m glad to be home and ready for this little guy to get here,” James said.

“It was really fun,” Lindsey added.

“It helped that I had a really awesome support system between family and close friends. He is home for the foreseeable future and has finished that deployment so he will be here for the birth, thank goodness,” she said.

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