Kaylie Burchardt’s pregnancy announcement to her grandfather is going viral, much to her surprise.
“My husband and I got married in October 2020 … and we always thought we would wait to have kids,” Burchardt shared with Today.
Burchardt, 26, and her husband, Colby, 25, discovered they were going to be parents a year after their wedding.
“Unfortunately we had a miscarriage in November 2021,” she said. “We were waiting and trying to figure out what our next steps were and surprisingly got pregnant very soon after on December 30.”
But this time, the couple decided to keep their pregnancy a secret until they had time to talk to doctors. Fast forward to February 2022 when the couple decided to fly to Dallas unannounced to share their good news with family — including her great grandfather.
“The weekend we chose to go was the weekend of the ice storm,” Burchardt said. “We were able to (somehow) land in Dallas when 80% of the flights got canceled.”
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“When we landed in Dallas, the first thing we did was call my brother,” Burchardt said, adding that her brother was off work due to the storm. “He came and picked us up from the airport and we surprised him at lunch by giving him a whiskey tumbler glass saying, ‘You’ve been promoted to uncle.'”
And so, after lunch, Burchardt decided to share the good news with her mom and dad.
“We headed to my parents’ house (and) surprised them by walking in the door saying you’re going to be grandparents,” the mom-to-be shared the outlet. “They were so, so surprised that they were going to be grandparents, but also that we were in town.”
The last family member she wanted to tell was her great grandfather, Bill Pickarts.
“We walked in the door and surprised him that we were in town,” she said. “That’s when I handed him the box that had (a) mug in it and said I’d gotten a little gift for him.”
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“‘You put the great in grandpa,’ how sweet is that,” the grandfather said while looking over the mug, before he’d fully processed the message. Thankfully, Pickarts’ girlfriend helped speed things along.
“Are you gonna be a great-grandad?” she asks the great-grandfather to be.
“WHAT?! Oh my God,” Pickarts exclaims, throwing his hands in the air and smiling. “I had no idea what that meant! Oh honey! Whoa! Oh, I’m so happy! Oh baby!”
“His reaction alone on the pregnancy was incredible. I was not expecting that type of reaction,” she said of her grandfather’s reaction. “Just to see the emotion on his face was amazing, but then seeing it pop of everywhere on the internet. It’s hard to believe. It’s insane.”
“The coolest part is every day it pops up somewhere new. It’s just being able to share the news with my family of how viral it’s gone,” said Burchardt, who plans to find out if she’s having a boy or girl in a few weeks. “We’ve received comments from people we don’t even know. This baby feels so loved already.”