Ezekiel Burnett, 5, of Dallas had slept with his beloved teddy bear since he was born. 

The bear, "Original Teddy," traveled to Wisconsin with Ezekiel to spend Thanksgiving with family in Oconomowoc. 

When the Burnett family went to Milwaukee Mitchell International Airport to fly home, Ezekeil tossed his stuffed animal too high in one of the concourses and it got stuck in the rafters. 

"I looked at it and was like, 'No, that's there. It's not coming back down,'"  said his father, David Burnett. "From there, the giant tears came out." 

Ezekiel cried the whole way home, according to David Burnett. 

But on Tuesday morning, Ezekiel was reunited with his plush pal.

In early January, the teddy was turned in to the airport's lost and found. This month, the airport started making posts about the bear on social media to try to find its owner.

"Our posts set all-time records for the airport's social media accounts," said Harold Mester, the airport's director of public affairs and marketing said at a Tuesday news conference at the airport. "The bear actually reached 1.9 million people on Facebook, 1.8 million people on TikTok and more than 400,000 people on Twitter. In total, the story of Ezekiel's lost bear was followed by more than 4 million people around the globe." 

Last week, while the Burnetts were watching "Survivor," a friend of Ezekiel's mom shared the bear's story with her on Facebook. 

"She was just on her phone and she just jumped up," said David Burnett, a track coach. "She couldn't even speak. I looked at her and I'm like, 'That's his bear,' without even a doubt."

When Ezekiel was born, he was given the bear by one of his dad's former track athletes. 

"He's had this bear since day one and slept with it every night," David said. "So it has huge sentimental value to him." 

Every day leading up the reunion, Ezekiel asked if it was time to go to Wisconsin, his dad said. On Monday night, it was. Southwest Airlines flew Ezekiel and David in from Dallas. 

"We're just so honored and blessed to go through this experience," David said. "The staff at MKE airport and Southwest Airlines has been amazing."

David Burnett thanked the millions of people that commented and shared the bear's story and said the reunion wouldn't have been possible without them. 

"My wife jumped up out of her chair like we had won the lottery whenever she saw the video of the bear on the internet," he said. "We're just so happy to get the bear back."

While comments on social media indicated that these types of bears are oftentimes given to children with congenital heart disease, Ezekiel is a healthy kid. 

"We're fortunate to have a child that's 100% healthy," Burnett said. "But to raise awareness for children with that sort of disease, we can't fathom what those kinds of families go through ... Just to be able to raise awareness and support is huge. I can't even put it into words." 

Contact Hannah Kirby at hannah.kirby@jrn.com. Follow her on Twitter at @HannahHopeKirby.