Army Specialist Kendrick Lapahie, a member of the Navajo Nation, finally got to meet the young who sent him care packages when he was stationed in Iraq.

Lapahie had been receiving drawings and supplies from the kids in Luci Charley's kindergarten class since last October. When he returned home to Shiprock, New Mexico, he said his first priority was meeting his new friends.

He finally got to do that last Tuesday. "My wife told me and it felt great knowing that there were people that cared about me that didn't even know me," he told The Gallup Independent. "It was great seeing them and I had to give them all hugs."

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Welcome home (The Gallup Independent 4/11)