ALTOONA, BLAIR COUNTY - Members of the National Guard's 56th Stryker Brigade are coming home.
About 700 of our local soldiers have been fighting in Iraq for almost a year now.

Several hundred of them are safe on American soil.
They've been arriving at Fort Dix in New Jersey in waves all week.

For one family the reunion will be unimaginable when a local soldier meets his child for the very first time.

Jason and Carrie Kidd found out they were expecting their second baby just days before Jason deployed for training last September.
He was home over the holidays and that's when they found out that baby is a boy!
Just days later Jason was shipped to Iraq, and Carrie had to face this pregnancy on her own.
She says it's the hardest thing that they've both had to do.

When staff sergeant Jason Kidd arrives home from Iraq he'll be meeting his 4-month-old baby boy Andrew for the very first time.

It's been a long 9 months for Carrie. She went to her doctors appointments alone, and when she went into labor, she was alone.

She had no way of getting a hold of Jason overseas and she hadn't heard from him in a couple days, but by chance he called her while she was in the hospital.

He was able to hear the birth over the phone which was great for the family, but he still missed out on a lot. Since the birth Carrie’s been getting a lot of help from Andrew's big brother, eight-year-old Nathan.

It's been rough on the whole family, Jason too, and now they're ready for their hero to get back home.