Name Surprise

I have loved my name for as long as I can remember. My full name is Jordan Michael Heflin. I was born in 1985, which is the same year that Michael Jordan finished his rookie season with the Chicago Bulls. I have always been a huge fan of the man who most people think that I was named after. In fact most days I can be seen wearing at least one thing that contains my name, most of the time it is my flip flops, yes even during the winter.

However, not until recently did I find out actually how my name really came to be. I had always been told by my mother that I was named after the Jordan River from the Bible. My middle name came from my father because his first name is Michael. This is what I knew for 26 years of my life until I was talking with my parents recently about trying to figure out a name for our daughter. My dad came in with a Paul Harvey moment and said and here is "the rest of the story".

During October 1984 while my mother was taking a shower my father was watching the nightly news. One of the headlines that night was about a small town in Jordan, Minnesota involving an investigation into a child sex abuse scadal at a daycare. My dad recalls that he didn't remember much about the story, but it was the name of the town that caught his attention. He said the name of the town in his head a few times and decided that he kind of liked it. He yelled into the bathroom to my mom who was still in the shower "What do you think of the name Jordan?"

My mother said she said it a few times in her head and thought about the Jordan River in the Bible, a place that she had actually visited during a trip to Israel during her college years. She decided that she liked it as well so she yelled back that she liked it. That is the true story of how I got my first name.

What was even more fascinating to me is that at the same time I am hearing this story for the first time, so was my mother. I couldn't tell during the story if he was telling the truth, so I googled Jordan, Minnesota and the first link was about a sex abuse scadal that happened in 1984. So, I learned that there are always two sides to every story. Maybe you should ask both of your parents how they decided on your name and see what happens, you might be surprised too. Thanks for reading and God Bless!

Pregnancy Journey (Second Trimester)

The second trimester started off on a scary note. One night while I was at work Jennifer was taking her breakfast down to the basement when she lost her footing and fell on her backside and skidded down a few steps. Jennifer was really nervous because at this point she still hadn't been able to feel any kicks. So after calling me at work she decided to come in and get checked out. After talking with the doctor and having a quick ultrasound we were reassured that everything was OK with our baby. Later that week Jennifer's mom, Mimi sent her a package that contained non slip socks and shoes. Luckily things only got better for the remainder of the second trimester.

At sixteen weeks you are able to try and see the gender of the baby. However, we didn't have a scheduled ultrasound through the hospital until 20 weeks and we really wanted to find out earlier so that we could tell family before Christmas. So we booked an appointment at Lexington Fetal Photography to find out if baby Heflin was a boy or girl. Up until this point I was for sure that it was going to be a little boy, just because we had a an impromptu ultrasound a couple weeks before and everyone that was there seemed to think that they had seen a little bit of extra stuff down between his legs. We had also started discussing names and we had quickly agreed on a boys name but were having trouble with girl names. If she had been a boy then we were going to name him Landon Michael. Maybe we will have to save this one for a later date. At the ultrasound, almost immediately after starting the lady informed us that it was definitely a little girl. After an initial slight disappointment, came some fear and then an urge to work tons of overtime. I knew that a little girl was going to be more expensive and we needed to save now for dresses, shoes, accessories and for a wedding some day. However, it didn't take long to put all these worries to rest when I realized how amazing Jennifer is and if our daughter was anything like her then I would be the luckiest man alive, no matter how much it cost.

Our little girl!

Already wearing pink!

Now the debate for a name came into play. Jennifer had a list of names that she really liked, but I wasn't really excited about any of them. One name that Jennifer really liked was Rylee or Riley. I wasn't completely sold on this as a name so we decided to think about it. I have a really hard time associating names with people that I know whether it is a good or bad association. About a week later I came up with the option of Briley because it was similar and I knew of no people named this. However, Jennifer wasn't completely sold on it. Two weeks after we found out we were having a girl I was playing with some blocks that we had gotten for some pictures and that our daughter could play with later on. I was trying to come up with different name combinations and I just happened to add a N to Briley and formed Brinley. Jennifer and I both really liked it, so we looked up the definition to see what it meant. It said that it meant "burnt meadow" and immediately we said that it was the perfect name. I know that seems kind of weird but let me explain. When calculating the date of conception we were on our trip to Australia. The actual date we were in the outback and we had taken a hot air balloon ride over the outback and the brush had been set on fire. So in essence it was a "burnt meadow". We couldn't have found a more perfect name for our daughter. Jennifer came up with the middle name Kate because it flowed well together and it was one of the names that she had really liked for possible names. Just in case we had any second thoughts, we decided to think it over for a while before telling anybody. We made it official right before Christmas after having our anatomy ultrasound and verification that it was in fact a little girl.

Her first set of blocks

We were both off work for Christmas and were able to travel back to Western Kentucky to see both of our families for the holidays. Everyone was excited about our little one on the way. We discovered that Miss Brinley is going to be spoiled by all of her grandparents and great grandparents. We didn't have enough room in our car to bring it all back. Her closet was starting to get full at just 20 weeks old. I think I might be in a little trouble! Brinley was actually a little late giving me her Christmas gift. Right after the New Year I was able to feel her kick for the first time. It was great to finally be able to feel her move around.

Brinley has lots of clothes!

I was lucky enough to get to attend Superbowl XLVI (46) in Indianapolis because of my sister. So we packed our bags and headed out to Indy to hangout with Andrea, Chris, and our gracious hosts Tony and Myra Duritsch. The 5 day trip was jam packed with activities, however we had some free time to head down to NFL Experience one day and test our abilities. Jennifer even participated in the challenges, which made me pray that Brinley gets my athletic ability. Aunt Andrea even got Brinley her very first name badge made for her. Chris and I went to the big game and Jennifer stayed with Tony and Myra. Tony thought about texting me at halftime that Jennifer's water broke, but Myra and Jennifer talked him out of it. During this trip Andrea even got to feel Miss Brinley kick.

Jennifer trying her luck at the NFL Experience

Brinley's first name tag

During this second trimester Jennifer also celebrated her 27th birthday. She got a new iPhone 4 so that she could take pictures and videos of our little girl. It also meant that while at work we could take a minute to face time once Brinley gets here to say goodnight before bed. Also on Jennifer's birthday we decided to finish up some of the decorating in Brinley's room. A few weeks before I had painted Brinley's room pink and Jennifer had ordered some decals to match her bedding. We spent about 3 hours putting a tree and some monkeys up on her walls. I really hope she likes monkeys when she gets here.

Starting the tree

Jennifer with the tree

Brinley's finished bedroom wall decals

Jennifer also got into a crafty mood and decided to make a paper mobile and multiple bows to put on her bow holders. She also sewed about 150 buttons into the shape of a B for some nice wall decoration along with painting all the letters to spell out her name.

Jennifer is super crafty

We decided as a Valentine's Day gift we would have a 3-D ultrasound done. Grandma Shelia and Grandpa Mike decided that they would come up to see first hand what their granddaughter would look like. She was really cute and even opened her eyes a few times. It a majority of the pictures she had her legs up by her face. Near the end of our session she started playing with her umbilical cord, which made me a little nervous.

Just a little wink

The second trimester was very exciting and it seemed like it flew by. We started off with a scare and after we got to around 23 weeks Jennifer started getting a little nervous that Brinley could realistically come at anytime. However, with each passing week Jennifer felt better and better because she knew that all the extra time in the womb was very crucial. She also enjoyed seeing babies at work that were the same age as Brinley was because it gave her a good idea of realistically how big Brinley was at the time. We can't wait to meet our precious girl. Only 12 more weeks until our expected due date. Thanks for reading and God Bless!

The Pregnancy Journey (First Trimester)

The last 8 months have been a wild and wonderful adventure and we are highly anticipating the arrival of Miss Brinley Kate. It all started with a positive pregnancy test on August 28th, which was shortly after returning home from our Australian adventure, which made us about 4 weeks pregnant. Being in the medical field made us realize that this was a very tough time of the pregnancy because of the high risk of miscarriage, so we decided that we were not going to announce anything until we had reached the 12 week mark. This only lasted about 2 weeks because it was extremely hard talking to my parents because I had some of the most exciting news of my life and I wasn't able to tell them. Jennifer and I decided that since we would be going home in a couple weeks and both our families would be there that we would only tell the grandparents to be. We decided that since a picture is worth a thousand words we would get each set of grandparents a picture frame with a picture letting them know what was in store for them. Grandpa Mike and Grandma Shelia got a picture of a hamburger bun in the oven, just a little outside the box way of telling them. Jennifer's mom, Mimi, got a picture of the positive pregnancy test. All the grandparents were really excited about the news, however we told them that we wanted to keep it a secret for just a little while longer. This really let some of the pressure off our shoulders because we knew that there was now a few other people praying and thinking about that precious little baby that Jennifer was growing.



Jennifer at our 1st doctors appointment

We had decided to go ahead and tell people before our original 12 week decision to wait because a few people had already found out. When heading into our 1st ultrasound we happened to park next to a couple, Tigre and Scott, who happened to have a doctors appointment that day. I tried to talk my way out of it, but I couldn't get out of telling them the truth because it was a women's health clinic they saw us walking into. They swore secrecy and I knew that they were good for their word, but it was a close call. Some of Jennifer's co-workers found out early too because one night Jennifer went into work and was assigned a patient with CMV, which is a virus that can cross the placenta barrier, so pregnant women do not need to take care of them. Jennifer had to ask someone to trade with her for the night and then had to put "no CMV" by her name on the schedule. We made our pregnancy official by the only way we knew how, by posting it on facebook. We posted it on October 10, 2011 which was exactly 11 years to the day after we started dating. I posted this ultrasound picture with the caption "Jen smuggled back one last little souvenir from our Australian adventure! Too bad I have to wait till May!

1st Ultrasound at 8 weeks

At our 1st ultrasound, as soon as the technician found Brinley on the screen we saw the above image and it appeared that she was waving her little arm at us as to say hello! It seemed that she was just as happy to meet us as we were to finally see a picture of her. Of course at the time we had no idea whether she was a boy or girl. The first trimester is usually the worst because of all the morning sickness, but we were really fortunate that Jennifer really didn't get sick. We had been expecting the worst because of everyone's horror stories of how bad the first trimester had been for them. Jennifer became a big fan of Pinterest and found an idea to share with our family about the development of Brinley. Here is the first picture that was taken at 10 weeks.

Our first picture day!

Since Jennifer had been doing so good we decided to take an early "baby" moon. Jennifer had discovered this new trend while doing her pregnancy research online. We decided to try and go somewhere within driving distance because Jennifer didn't want to fly anywhere. This was right during the middle of football season, so all the options that we came up with were relatively close to an NFL game that we could attend. My sister Andrea and her boyfriend Chris were planning a trip to Buffalo around the same time, so I talked Jennifer into letting me go watch the Bills play. That decided it. Our baby moon would be a trip to Niagara Falls. We decided to stay on the Canadian side, then make the trip to Buffalo for a few days so that I could go watch the Buffalo Bills play. A few days before the trip was to begin I actually talked Jennifer into another side trip to Philadelphia to watch the Eagles play. Jennifer finally agreed, so we set off on our baby moon with sports weekend.

Horseshoe Falls from the Canadian side

After exploring Niagara Falls, Canada we came back to the American side so that we could experience the falls from both sides. The only thing we didn't get to do was ride on the Maid of  the Mist and that was because it was closed during the winter months. The Canadian side is the prettier side because you get to see a panoramic view of both the American and Canadian falls. However, on the American side you get to be up close to the falls and see the power and force of the water as it cascades over the edge.

Jennifer and I at Niagara Falls, USA

Up close view of the falls from the American side

We then made our way down to Buffalo and had our best meal of the trip at the famous Anchor Bar in Buffalo. This is the place were the Buffalo Wing was created and it was hands down some of the best wings that I have ever had.

They were good!

Sunday was game day in Buffalo and Jennifer decided to sit this one out and rest at the hotel. I went to the game and had a great time at Ralph Wilson Stadium watching the Jets and Bills with Andrea, Chris and some of their friends. Monday morning Jennifer and I packed up and made the next leg of the trip to Philly to catch the Monday Night Football game between the Eagles and Bears. Before heading to the stadium we decided to try out the famous Philly cheese steak, so of course we went to Geno's and Pat's. We really needed a third member of our party because I liked Geno's and Jennifer liked Pat's better. After filling up on cheese steaks we headed to Lincoln Financial Field for the game. Jennifer was a good sport and pretended to enjoy the game, but I know she was mostly excited about the hot chocolate. (I really hope Brinley loves sports like her Dad.)

Picture after the game from our seats

Tuesday we headed back home. This baby moon officially wrapped up our first trimester. It was great to know that we were 1/3 of the way done, but there was still a lot to do before our child was to arrive. Thanks for reading and God Bless!

I Might Be Turning Into My Parents

As we are preparing for little Miss Brinley's arrival I find myself becoming more and more like my parents. If you don't know my parents all that well, then I will let you know that ever since I can remember they have been very emotional people. Jennifer and I had been doing pretty good with our emotions, but over the past week we have both had some mini break downs. It all started last week after working a night shift. Jennifer had been having a lot of Braxton Hicks contractions, around one every five minutes. The next morning after getting off work we happened to already had a doctors appointment. Our doctor said that everything was looking good and after checking Jennifer she said that she was currently 1 cm dilated and 25% effaced. This made us feel better that our doctor said that this was fairly normal at this point in pregnancy and that Jennifer should try to rest when possible and to drink plenty of water and to let her know if the contractions became more frequent or severe. I think that this mostly made us more aware that this seemingly never ending process of pregnancy was in its final stages and that Miss Brinley would soon be making her appearance in this world.


Here is the latest picture that we have taken, which again shows that it will not be long before Brinley makes her arrival. We have been taking one of these pictures every Wednesday since around 10 weeks. We have sent them to family members so that they could keep up with Miss Brinley's progress.

My moment of parental emotion came on this week while listening to Pandora. A song came on which described exactly how I am going to feel when Brinley gets here. It is a short song by Stevie Wonder about the birth of his first daughter, Aisha. Below are the lyrics to the song.

Isn't she lovely
Isn't she wonderful
Isn't she precious
Less than one minute old
I never thought through love we'd be
Making one as lovely as she
But isn't she lovely made from love

Isn't she pretty
Truly the angel's best
Boy, I'm so happy
We have been heaven blessed
I can't believe what God has done
Through us he's given life to one
But isn't she lovely made from love

Isn't she lovely
Life and love are the same
Life is Aisha
The meaning of her name
Londie, it could have not been done
Without you who conceived the one
That's so very lovely made from love

The words almost made me tear up a bit because I know that the moment that I lay eyes on Brinley I will be the happiest father in the world. God has truly blessed us beyond measure with bringing Brinley into our lives and I cannot wait to meet her.

Jennifer became emotional in one of the weirdest of places. We decided that the other day we would go to Build-A-Bear and make Brinley a stuffed animal from her Mom and Dad. Upon arrival the decision was quickly made once seeing the option of a koala bear. As you probably know, Brinley was a sovenir that we brought back with us from our adventures to the land down under, Australia. Jennifer and I have only made one other bear at Build-A-Bear (for the Tomes Family when they added a new addition) so we had forgotten all the options and how the process was carried out. You had the option to place an audio "press here" button inside the koala. After listening to all the prerecorded options, we decided to create our own. This is when I looked in Jennifer's eyes and knew I should tred lightly or I would have to ask for a mop and bucket for the cleanup. Just like I have seen many times in my life, once my mom got that look in her eyes, my father's weren't far behind. So we went over into a corner of the store and composed ourselves so that we could record ourselves. We each took a turn telling Brinley Kate that we loved her. We proceeded over to the stuffing section and handed over the koala and audio clip.

Jennifer pressing the button to make the
stuffing come out of the machine.

 The lady then asked if we would like to pick a heart to put in the koala. I let Jennifer pick one and then the lady told Jennifer to give it a kiss and make a wish. The tears almost began to flow again, but Jennifer composed herself enough to make her wish and to then let me get a wish in as  well. We completed the koala then had to pick out an outfit. I let Jennifer do most of the selection here as I still have difficulty making my own clothes match. Here is a picture of the final product.

I let Jennifer pick out the clothes

The last thing on the agenda was to then make a name for the koala. The first name that came to mind for both of us was Harvey. Kinda crazy, but again it goes back to Australia. Jennifer got to hold a koala in Australia and the picture ended up looking like a family photo.

Jennifer and I with Harvey in Cairns

That cute little koala was named Harvey. However, Harvey being a boy's name we decided to use one of the names that had been in the running during the name selection process. So, Brinley's stuffed koala made by her mom and dad is named Allie Harvey. We hope that Brinley enjoys Allie as much as we enjoyed making it for her.

So, over the past few weeks I have decided that I really am not just becoming my parents, but in fact I am becoming a parent. This pregnancy journey has been amazing and I can't wait to experience the final few weeks until our baby girl decides to make her arrival. Thanks for reading and God Bless!

Mamaw

While picking up around the house today I was moving around Jennifer's scrapbooks that she had made over the years. I looked through them and it created a lot of old memories for me and gave me a lot of ideas for future blog post. One thing really caught my eye that I had forgotten about over the years. I was looking at the football scrapbooks that Jennifer had made about my junior and senior years. Besides bringing back all the old memories of losing during my high school career, I noticed something that the majority of people would have just overlooked in the picture, a piece of tape around my leg. That picture made me think of all the wonderful memories I had with my Mamaw. Kind of weird, but let me explain.

Senior captains: Will Fuller, Heath Bailey, Colby Wilson and myself

Well at the beginning of my senior year, my Mamaw fell and hit her head on Sunday morning August 18th. After falling she had no symptoms or side effects from the fall, just a little bump. However, the next day while my parents were out of town dropping Andrea off at a college retreat I got a call while at school from her neighbor that she just wasn't acting right. I was checked out of school by my football coach and went to check on her. She was really confused and the paramedics thought that she had suffered a stroke (one side of her face was drooping). They took her to the hospital in Owensboro. After some tests, the medical team discovered that she had a subdural hematoma that was causing pressure on her brain. She was becoming more and more confused and then later became less responsive. Our options were to 1) drill a small hole in her skull and try to drain off the fluid or 2) do nothing. For any of you that knew Mamaw, you knew that she was an incredible fighter - she had beat cancer multiple times (skin, breast and colon cancer twice), a heart attack, suffered a few mini strokes, and 2nd degree burns to her hands and arms. So, there was really no choice, my aunt and father decided on option 1. The procedure was a success and after some time in the ICU, she went to a regular room. She was actually doing pretty well so they decided to move her to a nursing home until she was ready to go home. However, on September 16th the Lord decided that she was ready to come home to Him. This was a very difficult time, but it was much easier knowing that I will get to see her again someday in heaven and I can't wait to have some of her peanut brittle!

Family picture with Mamaw
Probably Easter 1992

Back to the picture of the tape. The week that Mamaw fell was a difficult one for everyone in my family. Mamaw was the only grandparent that I had really gotten to know since my papaw (my mom's dad) passed away when I was just 5. I never got to know the other two because they passed away before I was born. We spent countless hours at the hospital that week, but our parents never kept us out of school because we needed some normalcy in our lives, and Mamaw had always fought back. I was going to school, then football practice and then heading over to the hospital at night to visit for a while. So, when Friday arrived it was our first game of the year. After much deliberation, my dad decided that he would take a break from the hospital and come to my game (Dad's cousin Janet stayed with Mamaw). In the locker room I decided that I would put a piece of tape on my sock with the letters GH, which were her initials, as a sign that even though I wasn't with her right then, she was definitely on my heart and mind. This just became a part of my uniform. Each week I would get dressed in my uniform and last thing on was a piece of tape, for GH. The week that she passed away was difficult, there were too many things going on and I missed some practice, but on Friday I still had my starting spot. That night before the game I put a piece of tape on every guy's leg in the locker room, even though most of the team never even met my Mamaw. It was a tribute to one of the most amazing women in my life. I will be forever grateful that I got to spend 17 years with her.

I am not quite sure how I would have made it through school if I had never known my Mamaw. This is because every time I was given the task of writing a story for English, I would somehow end up writing about her. Half of my 4th grade portfolio was about her. Here are some of my favorite stories.

Mamaw on her birthday with the grandkids

Chicken Breath for the Soul (actual title of portfolio piece-this is the condensed version)
When my Uncle Bob was little, they sold pet chickens in the stores that had their feathers dyed different colors. Uncle Bob had one that he loved dearly. He would play with in the back yard and one day he had it inside an old car tire. Bob was bouncing around the tire and accidentally stepped on the chicken. Mamaw said she heard Bob screaming so she rushed out to see what was wrong. Bob was crying because he had killed his chicken. So Mamaw quickly picked up the chicken and said she started breathing in its mouth so that Bob would stop crying. After a few breaths Mamaw said that chicken just perked right up and started running around again. Sorry you didn't get to see her reenact it because that was sometimes the best part of the story.

Brush fire
This one I actually experienced first hand. I was always going to Mamaw's to do some kind of work out in the yard, whether it was mowing, raking leaves or just any kind of manual labor. One day, when I was around 10 or 11 years old, after gathering up all the sticks in the yard, we decided to burn the trash pile. So we lit the fire and within about 5 minutes the fire started getting out of control. The fire started spreading outward from the trash pile and started heading towards the embankment that was full of old leaves and limbs. I started trying to beat out the edges of the spreading fire with a broom, but the bristles all burned up. Then I got a rake and tried to rake back some of the leaves ahead of the fire. Meanwhile, Mamaw had gone up to the house and got a bucket and was filling it up with water (a water hose would have been nice). She came back and was at the top of the hill and was going to toss the water down onto the fire. However, the laws of physics were not on her side that day. Not only did the bucket of water roll down the hill, but so did Mamaw (in her 80s at the time). Mamaw did a complete somersault down the hill. I rushed over to help her up and she was fine, but she told me to go get the next bucket full. We finally put out the flames, but the memory will last forever.

Factory Worker
Mamaw held many jobs over the years: house wife, mother, tent maker, store owner and many more, but my two favorites are the candy factory worker and chicken plucker. She got a job at a chocolate candy factory and was part of the line that placed the chocolates in the boxes. I always envisioned the I Love Lucy episode. Her coworkers told her that every night before going home they took some of the chocolates home with them. Mamaw decided that she would do the same, so before the end of the night she gathered up some to take home. Just so happens that management got word that people were taking some home and decided to check every one at the door. There was a long line to get out that night and it was moving extremely slowly. All the women figured out what was going on and threw all their chocolates out on the floor, but for some reason Mamaw held on to hers. After a few minutes and apparently not much success at finding chocolates on the women, they let the rest of them go. Mamaw got away with the chocolates, while the halls were lined with all other women's discarded candy.

Another time she signed up to work as a chicken plucker. Here the job was simple, you got a chicken and started to pluck all the feathers. It was a job that was based on performance and you got paid at the end of the day based on the amount you plucked. After being shown the basic info, they let her begin on her first day. She started plucking out feathers and thought she was doing good until she saw how fast the other women were going. However, she kept going and figured that she would just get faster over time. One of her co-workers was explaining during lunch how getting paid worked and Mamaw found out that they docked your pay every time you broke the skin on the chicken. Mamaw was not told about this and wasn't even sure if she had done this or not, but figured that she probably done it to every one of her chicken's that day. So, instead of finishing the day she just left after lunch. Instead of collecting her payment for working she just left and considered it a win because she figured that she might have owed them money.

Mamaw and I before my Junior Prom 2002

It is amazing all the memories that one picture brought back for me. I truly do miss and think about her all the time. I just wish that she would have gotten to meet my daughter, but I know that she will be looking down from heaven on her. I also can't wait to tell Brinley all the stories about her Mamaw Heflin. Thanks for reading and God Bless!

Engagement Story

Seven years ago today I made one of the biggest decisions of my life. I asked one of the most important questions to the most incredible lady. Sophomore year of college Jennifer and I went on spring break with Andrea, Lance and Tony. After much debate on a destination for our trip, we decided to head south to explore New Orleans and the French Quarter. Andrea and I had both been to New Orleans before, so we were left with the task of determining certain things that were must do's on the trip.

A few weeks before spring break I had been asked by another friend, Stuckey, if I would like to come back to his hometown. One of the main parts of this trip was to visit Stuckey's Granddad's jewelry shop. He was going to be closing his store and Stuckey said that his Granddad could hook me up. I was up for the trip, but Jennifer wasn't very excited for me to leave her at Georgetown for the weekend all by herself. If she had only known why I don't think she would have been as upset. Stuckey, Tony and I all went to the jewelry store that Saturday and I found the diamond cut, Princess, that Jennifer had mentioned that she liked. After much deliberation and even a phone call home to talk with my parents, I decided to purchase the ring. At this point I had no idea when I was going to pop the question, but at least now I would have the ring whenever I felt the timing was right.

Two days before leaving on our journey to the Big Easy, Stuckey came back from his hometown with the ring that had been sized to fit Jennifer's finger. It was at this point that the idea came to me that New Orleans would be a good option for popping the question. There was already a few people on the football team that knew the ring had been bought and with Georgetown being a small school, I didn't want anyone to ruin the surprise.

We stopped by Livermore on the way to New Orleans so that we could swap vehicles and use my parents mini van to make the trip a little more comfortable on the ride down. I told Jennifer that I needed to work a shift at Sears, which had been my summer job so that I could stay on the payroll. However, I had really asked her parents, Bobby and Kara to meet me for dinner. I bought their dinner and asked if they would be alright with me asking Jennifer to marry me. They both were really excited and said they would be happy to have me as a son-in-law.

After the 13 hour trip of driving through the night, we actually arrived earlier than expected and couldn't check into our hotel room, so we slept in the car at a Wal-mart. We roamed around the city and Bourbon Street the next two days. On the way back to the hotel after the second night, Jen told me that she really wasn't having that much fun because we were spending the majority of our time watching people drink and act stupid. I told her that we would get up the next day and just explore the city on our own. She seemed ok with that idea.

That night I only slept about 2 hours because I was so nervous about how I was going to ask Jennifer to marry me. I decided that we would get up, head down to Cafe du Monde and have some beignets and then head down to a park that I had remembered from a previous trip to New Orleans with my family. I would ask her there in the park on the banks of the Mississippi River. I couldn't take it any longer, so around 6 am I woke up Jennifer and told her to get ready so we could get a jump start on the day. I told her to wear something a little dressier and I even put on a dress shirt and khaki pants, yes that’s right pants!

Our hotel wasn't in the best part of town and when leaving the hotel that morning we had to walk past about 20-30 homeless people. This made me extremely nervous because I had this ring in my pocket and I definitely didn't want it to fall out, so I checked my pocket about every 5 steps. We arrived at Cafe du Monde and we placed and order for two orders of beignets. I was so nervous that I barely choked down one. I suggested that we head over to the river and take a walk since it was so nice out. Upon reaching the river walkway, I looked ahead to kind of map out my path to the park that I had thought about before hand for the perfect spot. The only problem was that I saw no park anywhere. (Come to find out later on that it was just hidden behind a building about 100 yards from where we were.) I panicked and just suggested that we sit down at the nearest park bench. We sat there for what seemed like an eternity (probably just a few minutes real time) because my mind just went completely blank. After gathering up the words I wanted to say I started to get frustrated because about every time I was about to stand up to get down on one knee a morning jogger or cyclist decided to pass by us. I finally found a break in the fitness freaks and got down on one knee and I asked Jennifer if she would like to spend the rest of her life with me. At least that is what I wanted to say. Neither Jennifer nor I can remember exactly what was said during the exchange. I don't even think Jennifer said yes, but her putting the ring on her finger was the only answer I needed. We hugged, kissed and Jennifer even got a little teary. Almost immediately after sitting back down on the bench a cyclist passed by and said "Good Morning" and indeed at was. I even snapped a picture of Jennifer on the park bench. Then we walked back to the hotel and along the way I told Jennifer about all the lies and stories that I had to tell her to make it a surprise. Jennifer decided to call her family and tell the good news, even though they already knew.


Jennifer on the park bench where I popped the question

Jennifer and I spent the rest of the day wondering around the city by ourselves while the rest of the crew played a round of golf, which was only on the schedule because that is what they were supposed to be doing when I popped the question. I am not sure how much of New Orleans Jennifer really rememberslooking at her new jewelry.

New Orleans definitely holds a special place in my heart. We were lucky enough to have visited before hurricane Katrina hit. To help with the recovery of the city we decided that we would forgo wedding favors and instead donate money to help the great city of New Orleans. Thanks for reading and God Bless!

My story (condensed)

I guess we need to start this blog journey off right. I am the middle child of Michael and Shelia Heflin and was raised in the great state of Kentucky. I have been saved by the grace of GOD, who is my personal LORD and Savior. I grew up in a town of just under 2,000 people with no stop lights or chain restaurants. Needless to say a place where everyone knew everyone and everything. My father was my elementary school principal and later on my 8th grade English teacher. He currently enjoys retirement while working part time at the middle school. My mother continues to work at the library, although retirement talks have surfaced many times lately. My parents helped lay the foundation while I was growing up to help prepare me for the next major step in my life: parenthood.

I have two siblings, an older sister, Andrea and a younger brother, McKinley. It has been a lot of fun growing up with the both of them. For the first five years of my life it was only Andrea and me. I know that we shared many memories together during those years, but being so young during that time means that I don't really remember them as well. Our teenage years were a little rocky, but I can honestly say that she is the best big sister in the world, although most people think she is my little sister. McKinley was the "pleasant" surprise that my parents brought home when I was 5 and a half years old. Over the years he has changed from the little brother that I picked on to one of my best friends. The three of us are a highly competitive group, mainly due to a father who hated to lose. Andrea set the pace in life and school, which made it very difficult for me to go through school as Andrea's little brother. I like to think that I surpassed my sister, or at least evened the playing field so that I created my own personal identity. However, I am sure this made it extremely difficult for McKinley to try and live up to expectations of others. Overall, I would say that we are a pretty good group of kids. We all finished high school with the honor of Valedictorian of our class and only McKinley didn't have perfect attendance for 13 years, although Andrea will be quick to mention that I once missed a half day.

Most people don't marry their high school sweetheart, but I was one of the lucky ones that found my soul mate at the age of 15. Jennifer and I first started courtship or "talking" in Mr. Bowman's computer class during our sophomore year of high school. For those of you that know Jennifer, then you probably think that it was a pretty one sided conversation. I got up the nerve to ask her to the football homecoming dance. (Later on I found out that it truly was fate, because Jennifer had turned down another offer by saying that she wasn't going to the dance at all.) A few weeks after the dance I actually called Jennifer at 8 am before football practice and asked her to be my girlfriend. She said yes on October 10, 2000. We have shared many great memories over the years and can't wait to make many more with her! She has truly been one of the greatest blessing and I thank GOD everyday for putting her in my life.

Jennifer and I at our 1st homecoming dance

After high school, I decided to go to Georgetown College to further my education. I was lucky enough to be able to be a part of the Tiger Football Program. Although my playing career didn't turn out as well as I had hoped, the team was very successful. While there we won the conference all 4 years and made it as far as the final four in the post season tournament. This was a wonderful small college experience. I was so thankful to have Andrea and Jennifer with me, or else I really would have been homesick. At Georgetown I met some lifelong friends. Probably the two closest were my roommates junior year, Tony and Lance. After changing majors multiple times, I decided that a career in nursing was the route that I was going to pursue. Georgetown had a dual degree program, which required transferring to the University of Kentucky. Jennifer and I graduated from Georgetown College in 2007.

In 2007, I moved to Lexington to attend the University of Kentucky College of Nursing. After my first semester, Jennifer and I got married. This was a great experience at a larger university, but I spent most of my time with the same 54 classmates. There were a lot of great friends that I met during school, but I am not sure if I could have made it without my friend James. We were 2 of the 4 men that were in our class. I graduated from the University of Kentucky in December of 2009.

After college I started working on 6 North at the University of Kentucky Hospital. This was a cardio-thoracic step down unit. I met many wonderful patients and enjoyed working with so many great people. However, after a year I was able to get a position in the Children's Hospital, which is the area that I had always wanted to work in. I currently work in the Pediatric ICU and I love my job. Again, I have met many wonderful kids and I enjoy working with all my co-workers.

That is a breif history of where I have been and some of the major people in my life. I decided to write this blog while we are expecting our first child. We are excited about what the journey of parenthood has in store for us. It will be a fun, yet stressful time for both Jennifer and me. I plan to keep you all informed about all the exciting things that miss Brinley Kate will be doing. Thanks for reading and God Bless!