Being a sailor for the military is no easy task — serving your country is such an honorable job, but it's definitely not easy.
One of the things sailors struggle with is missing their family members while they're at sea.
Because they're gone for months at a time, they often miss major life events like birthdays, anniversaries, and even births — as this dad of a newborn knows too well.
A Canadian soldier, Tristan Lapointe, spent six months at sea, aboard the HMCS St. John's.
The ship's home port is in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, and she is assigned to Maritime Forces Atlantic.
When the ship docked on the morning of July 17, 2017, all the sailors were thrilled that they would get to see their families again. But Tristan had something special in store for his girlfriend, Gabrielle Lambert.
Gabrielle was one of hundreds waiting for the boat to dock, but she had no idea her experience would be a little different than everyone else's.
Gabrielle Lambert and hundreds of other people eagerly waited outside for the HMCS St. John's to dock in Canada.
Gabrielle's boyfriend, Tristan Lapointe was on board and she couldn't wait to see him.
Tristan had been on the ship for six months, and their communication had been limited.
When Tristan and Gabrielle finally saw each other, they were ecstatic — but Gabrielle didn't know that Tristan was about to propose.
After hugging one another, Tristan broke away and got down on one knee.
Gabrielle immediately broke down — as if seeing her boyfriend for the first time in six months wasn't emotional enough, now he was proposing!
Gabrielle alternated between putting her hands over her mouth and over her heart while Tristan expressed how much he loved her.
With all the other soldiers and families watching, Tristan popped the question.
And, of course, Gabrielle said yes!
Tristan slipped the ring on her finger as his fellow soldiers burst into applause.
Luckily, Tristan had planned for some friends to take pictures and video, so the whole proposal was caught on camera.
(Which is good, because chances are Gabrielle was so emotional that she won't even remember most of it!)
Gabrielle definitely wasn't expecting Tristan to propose to her, but she couldn't have said "yes" more enthusiastically.
Although these two lovebirds said goodbye as girlfriend-boyfriend, they got to say hello to one another as a newly engaged couple!
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