Long-Awaited Homecoming After Pandemic Travel Restrictions Kept Airmen Deployed

SACRAMENTO (CBS13) - The Fourth of July couldn't come soon enough for Maritza Phillips.

"I'm kind of jittery. I can't sit still," she said. "I'm so excited that he's finally coming home."

She wasn't anxiously awaiting the pomp and circumstance of the holiday. Phillips and her little girls – Maddy, 1, and Elisse, 3, have been anxiously awaiting a special homecoming.

"She will wake up in the middle of the night crying that she misses her daddy she'll go through periods of the day where she's kind of sad because she missed her daddy," said Phillips of one of her daughters.

The little ones have kept Mom busy and entertained, but this particular deployment has been challenging.

"It's been really hard especially with everything that's been going on. There's been times where I just really wished I had somebody to lean on," said Phillips.

Phillips and the girls waited an extra three months for this day. Every time they thought Dad was finally coming home, COVID-19 travel restrictions pushed things back.

"I told him it's just too heartbreaking when you get so close and then you tell me that it got extended again so we've just been patiently waiting and then he got the for sure that he was coming home," said Phillips. "I told him we couldn't wait at home for him to show up we want to see you right when you get off that plane."

And that's exactly what they did. Phillips traveled with the little ones from Suisun City to the Sacramento International Airport for the big arrival. Staff Sergeant Skylar Phillips thought this day would never come.

"It felt unreal. I wasn't expecting it so soon. I was ready to come home but I just wasn't expecting it be happening until I got on the plane," said Staff Sgt. Phillips. "I'm grateful to be home, it's nice to see my girls, my wife."