Man Speechless After Learning What Wife Did for 10-Year-Old Stepdaughter

A Florida woman found a way to make Thanksgiving extra special for her husband this year by organizing a surprise visit from his daughter.

In a heartwarming video posted to TikTok, Nikki Powers shared footage of the moment her husband, Andrew, discovered something unexpected waiting for him in the front seat of their car: his 10-year-old daughter.

“My stepdaughter Aleeah moved to North Carolina a few years ago from Florida,” Powers told Newsweek. “It was the best thing to do for her mom and her family at the time and even though it’s not ideal and it’s very difficult to be away we understood the reasons and we always said that we would make it work.”

In some ways, Aleeah’s situation isn’t all that uncommon. According to the Pew Research Center, around one in six children in America are living as part of a blended family, with a step-parent, step-sibling or half-sibling.

What makes her situation more unique is the distance between mom and dad, which is somewhere in the region of 650 miles. Aleeah’s family makes it work though with regular chats over FaceTime and visits whenever they can.

“We have always made it a priority that we do visits throughout the year, either with her coming down here or us going up there,” Powers said. “My husband Andrew is an amazing father and has always felt like he has done what is best for his daughter and we have a wonderful relationship with her mom and when we visit we normally stay with her and the rest of her family.”

Thanksgiving is all about spending precious time with family, so when Aleeah’s mom reached out to Powers to ask if they would like to spend the holidays with her stepdaughter, she jumped at the chance.

She credits Aleeah’s mom with coming up with the idea of making it a surprise. Powers and Andrew have surprised Aleeah with visits in the past so she thought it was only fair that they return the favor.

“Her mom truly did all of the hard work, she is the one that got the ok for Aleeah to miss a cheer practice, she’s the one that drove more then half way to meet up with her sister’s dad,” Powers said.

After finishing work on Monday night, Powers went and picked up Aleeah from her aunt and uncle’s house. “When we got closer to our house I called Andrew and told him I needed help getting something out of the car,” she said. “That’s when I started the video.”

In the video, posted to TikTok under the handle nikki3886, Andrew is clearly stunned, letting out a “what the…” as he realizes she is there with them. After expressing a little more surprise as well as one expletive, the video ends with Andrew and Aleeah sharing the most heartfelt of hugs in stunned silence.

At the time of writing the video has been watched over 370,000 times with viewers full of praise for Powers’ role in making this magic moment happen.

“My favorite part is the fact that you and her Mom worked together on the surprise. Dammit that’s the way it’s supposed to work,” one viewer wrote.

“I see a safe dad, I see a loved kid, I see a wife who shows devotion to happiness,” a second said. “Bless your home.” A third, meanwhile, commented: “That is co parenting at its finest.”

The plan now is to find a way to make sure they see each other even more.” Andrew and I are working towards trying to move closer, he is finishing up his teaching degree and only has about a year left,” Powers said. “Then we are hoping that we can make that move.”