Watch This Sweet Reunion Between A Boy And His Beloved Stuffed Giraffe & Have Your Daily Cry
The toy was accidentally left in Paris after a family trip.
I’ll never forget the time when we were about halfway home from dinner at one of our favorite spots when my daughter suddenly screeched out, “WHERE IS GERALD?” Now, Gerald is her beloved stuffed giraffe that she has slept with and carried pretty much everywhere since she was sleeping in a crib by herself.
Thankfully, we turned right back around and found him stuck between the booth cushions. That panic that seeps in when your child has lost their favorite stuffed animal or toy will stay with you forever. No parent wants to have to face that kind of a kid meltdown. Plus, if I lost my favorite thing in the entire world, I would be devastated, too.
One mom knows that feeling all too well when her own son lost his favorite stuffed giraffe while traveling in Europe with his family. After realizing that the stuffed animal, Cutie, had been left in a Paris Airbnb, Hailey Terry posted on social media, begging for help to get her son reunited with the cherished stuff animal.
After reaching out the Airbnb hosts, they agreed to have the cleaning people look for the stuffie. The bright side was that Cutie has been found. However, they would not ship Cutie.
“If we wanted it, we would have to hire a courier service to get it (which would have been $$$),” she wrote on Instagram.
Turns out, there’s still good in the world because hundreds of people offered to help Terry. She documented the reunion on TikTok, soon going viral with over 3.8 million people viewing the sweet moment.
“We took our kids to Paris and made a huge mistake,” she wrote in text overlay on the video. “We left our son’s special animal, Cutie, at our Airbnb and didn’t realize it until we were gone.”
She then notes how “terrible” she felt about the entire situation (mom guilt FTW!) and reached out to her followers to see if anyone could help. The response was overwhelming with Terry sharing some of the messages she received from generous followers offering their assistance.
“Let me know if you don’t find anyone. I have a friend in Paris who I bet would do this for me, but seems like a more roundabout way then if you find someone directly,” one message read.
“Ask them if they’re willing to ship to Sweden, and I could ship it to you!” another offered.
Soon enough, Cutie was signed, sealed, and delivered right to the Terry family’s mailbox.
“What is it?” Terry’s husband asks their son as he hold the unopened package.
“CUTIE!” the little boy says, beaming with excitement.
They run inside and open the carefully packaged stuffed animal, wrapped in tissue paper and tied with ribbon, along with a little note from the sender who ended up being author and American living in Paris, Anna Kloots, who saw Terry’s plea for help and came to their rescue.
The little one hugs the animal with pure joy, and cue everyone sobbing over this tender reunion and commenting on the viral video with their own similar stories.
“I left my favourite stuffed toy in the hotel at Disneyland Paris when I was a child. I bawled my eyes out for weeks and all of a sudden he turned up in the post box with a selection of photos with Disney characters and a letter from the hotel saying how much fun he had on his special solo holiday,” one user wrote.
Another said, “When I was a little girl I left my blankie at a hotel 8 hours away, they wouldn't ship it and my papa drove the 8 hours there and back on his one day”
“I left a doll on the ferry when I was five. They made her a little paper outfit and jewelry and mailed her back to me. 💕💕” another shared.
“While a forgotten stuffed animal might seem trivial and not all the effort it was to get it back, the love and support I got when I posted about it really was incredible. I got hundreds of messages from people commiserating with me, reaching out to their local friends and missionaries, offering to have it shipped to their closer country and then ship it to me…it was all so kind. Thank you everyone. Kids grow up so fast and I am glad we got this special piece of his childhood back in our home,” she concluded on Instagram.
