When Ben and Hannah Hinders, a young married couple, moved to Hawaii, they were separated from their friends and family back on the east coast for quite a while. Returning home for the first time in ten months, the two went around reuniting with their loved ones—his family in Virginia, and hers in Florida.
They had a lot of catching up to do, because a lot can happen in ten months.
And Ben & Hannah went through a pretty major milestone: They had their first baby, a girl named Ivy
So of course, the couple was excited to introduce the newest member of the family back home. But everyone was in for a shock.
They had kept the entire pregnancy and birth a secret from everyone!
“My wife had the idea of, ‘Wouldn’t it be crazy if we had a kid and didn’t tell anybody and then just showed up on their doorstep?”’ Ben explained to Today.
They managed to keep it under wraps the entire time
Since they were so far away, no one ever knew, except the occasional person who visited them in Hawaii. But then, they were sworn to secrecy.
And so, returning home with their secret baby, they recorded everyone’s hilarious reactions
In their first visit, a friend joyously greets the couple at the door:
And then notices what they’re holding:
She’s overwhelmed when she suddenly finds out her friends had a baby:
“We told you we were gonna bring you a surprise,” Hannah jokes.
The couple had to meticulously avoid sharing any photos on social media that would have shown Hannah was pregnant. They also warned their friends taking Snapchats to avoid including her. Luckily, they were in Hawaii and had a plenty of landscapes and sunsets to share instead.
“We had to be really stringent,” Ben added. “Hannah was unbelievably self-controlled to not share it with anyone.”
The plan worked—no one ever caught on. And it shows in their reactions
Throughout the video, people tend to have the same sort of reactions: amused surprise that they have a baby with them, followed by shocked disbelief that it’s actually theirs.
One younger relative is ecstatic to meet the baby, but she assumes they adopted her—she becomes quite emotional when she finds out Hannah actually gave birth
While the secret was kept perfectly, Ben admitted that they had some reservations about withholding the milestone from their family—and indeed, they faced a little bit of blowback after the reveal.
“We had some anger come out after the fact, maybe a week or two later,” Ben told Today.
But he said no one was upset for very long—how could they be?
“My wife was pretty nervous, but we just thought, it’s pretty hard when you meet Ivy to not fall right in love. Nobody was mad for very long if they were mad.”
Indeed, it’s hard to stay mad when you’re suddenly holding your new granddaughter for the first time—one you never even knew was coming!
In the video’s description, Ben gives a shout-out to the friends who managed to keep it a secret for nearly a year—and helped pull off the surprise of a lifetime.
And it’s literally the surprise of their lifetimes, because Ben and Hannah aren’t planning to do it again anytime soon.
“If she has a sibling, they’re going to be so disappointed because we’re definitely not doing this again,” Ben joked to Today.
Watch the hilarious video here:
Credit: NTD
