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Military Moms Celebrate Mother's Day Together

Reporter: Parrish Alleman

Military Moms Celebrate Mother's Day Together

Sunday, May 13, 2012

One popular spot for moms to spend this Mother's Day was the Sedgwick County Zoo. The place was packed with families enjoying the nice weather. While there, we met two military moms who actually met about five years ago while deployed overseas.

The first time Toni Hann and Pam Boitel met while stationed in Qatar, they say Toni may have been a little too eager to meet someone from back home.

"She just kept asking question after question, 'I hear your from McConnell and so am I and what do you do,'" Boitel said.

"She's like, 'You just wouldn't let me alone.' And from then on we've been inseparable," Hann said.

The best friends decided to merge their families and celebrate this Mother's Day together, although one member of Pam's family was missing. Her husband is retired from the Air Force but in December he deployed to Afghanistan as a civilian.

"He called me first thing this morning," Boitel said.

In 2007, Pam says the roles were reversed. She was in Qatar on Mother's Day, missing her husband and two children at home.

"That was the longest I had been away from them. It was four months. It was very hard. We didn't have Skype then. We had to rely on emails and letters," Boitel said.

After spending one Mother's Day without her kids, the retired military mom says being with them is the only present she really needs.

"They don't have to make me breakfast or anything like that. I just want to hang out with them," Boitel said.

Her husband will be in Afghanistan until this December. Even though it's especially hard to be without him on holidays, that's what best friends are for.

"It'll be special for her just as much as it is for me," Hann said.