Turner Field

TURNER FIELD

Bodey's First, Last and Only Trip to Turner Field

September 27, 2016--Millie's 20 month birthday--we took Bodey to his first, last and only trip to Turner Field.  The Braves move to a new stadium, closer to our home, starting in the 2017 season.  It was very important to me that we take our only living child to the place where we met before it disappeared from existence.

This is the exact location in the stadium where Heath first approached me and our love story began...

My social media post from that night read: 

 It is a very serendipitous night.  Heath King and I met 7 years ago at Turner Field during a rain delay against the Phillies.  Two summers ago we were at a Braves game the night before we found out we were pregnant with Millie but I was so sure I was pregnant that I bought a Braves t-shirt for the 6 month old we would have come next season.  So here it is our last game in the place we met and tonight we got to bring Bodey to his first, last and only Braves game at Turner Field and it's against the Phillies no less and we are waiting out a rain delay  

 It's a true love story.  On Aug 16, 2009 I was only in town for 12 hours before continuing on along my road trip home to Wisconsin so it was purely divine intervention that we even crossed paths.  And we wouldn't have crossed paths if it weren't for a tropical storm with heavy down pour, thunder and lightening that put the game on hold.  



When I first moved to Atlanta, Heath and I went to many baseball games often deciding after getting home from work to just skip on over to the field to catch a game.  And we never missed a Braves vs Brewers game if we could help it.

It was simply perfect that we were enjoying a Braves game (that they were losing terribly) the night before we found out we were pregnant with Millie.  As we were leaving the stadium in the 7th inning because they were losing 6-1 against the Phillies we stopped at a fan shop and I told Heath we needed to buy our baby-to-be a Braves shirt because I was certain I was pregnant.  We bought a t-shirt for a 6 month old knowing that if I were pregnant the baby would be due in the start of the next year and therefore 6 months old during the next season.  On our drive home we listened to the Braves rally back to ultimately win the game in 11 innings!!  The next day we took a pregnancy test and on Father's day I told Heath he was going to be a father.

 One thing I was looking forward to with having a child was raising them to love baseball like I do.  Unfortunately we never got to take Millie to a game and her shirt still hangs in the closet.  One of my first very public events we attended after losing Millie was a baseball game at Turner Field with my parents.  It was an unexpected trigger for me as seeing all the families with their young kids made my heart break for the fact that I would never get to share those experiences with Millie.  It was even more overwhelming and I began sobbing when the Braves did a Lion King moment during the game showing all the Braves babies on the jumbotron while parents held their child up to the tune of The Circle of Life.  Emotionally I stopped being able to follow baseball for the 2015 season and never went to another game that season.

This year the Braves were having a terrible season but we decided to go to a game in order to see Chris Stapleton in concert after the game.  So Bodey got to attend a game in my belly just like his big sister Millie did.  We ended up with nosebleed seats because every one and their brother was at the game just for the post-game concert.  We happened to strike up conversation with the couple sitting next to us and they were very impressed with my willingness to be out at a game while 7 months pregnant in high heat and humidity.  This guy was between mine and Heath's age and got to talking with Heath about family as he and his wife have a couple kids also.  In this conversation Heath talked to him about Millie some and at the end of the night, while Chris Stapleton performed his last song, this gentleman requested to pray over us as he was being lead to do so.  We stood in a small huddle in the top of the stands while this preacher prayed over our baby in my belly and his big sister in heaven.  It was extremely emotional and extremely meaningful.

 As soon as I learned that the Braves would be leaving Turner Field for a brand new stadium I knew we would have to get to a game with our baby after he was born.  Ideally I wanted to take him on August 16--7 years to the day that his parents met but I knew that was awfully unrealistic since he would only be 3 weeks old.  And of course we weren't able to make it then but we planned to go later in September when my sisters were visiting.  Unfortunately the day we planned for was forecasted to rain so we decided to forego the game, not wanting to expose the baby to getting soaking wet at the game.  So when the season was quickly winding down to the last week of the regular season I knew we had to take Bodey.  We decided on Tuesday for no other reason than Bodey would be getting his vaccines later in the week and didn't think he would be up to a game then.  We chose to purchase decent seats and got settled in for a game under clear skies against the same team the Braves were playing when we met.  As the game moved into the 4th inning people around us started buzzing about the deep red band of weather headed our way on radar.  We didn't think we could get to the car before the storm started and it looked like a small storm so we decided to wait it out.  The game ended up delayed for quite awhile with torential down pours, thunder and lightening (just like the night we met). I nursed Bodey during the break but he remained fussy throughout the delay so we decided to head home as soon as the weather broke since the Braves were losing like 5-1.  When we got back in front of the TV we ended up seeing the Braves rally back to beat the Phillies while Bodey slept away the end of his first, only and last Braves game.

The Braves will always be our team even though the Brewers are MY team because of how integral this team has been in our love story.  Turner Field is the location where our love story has unfolded so I will be very sad that there won't be any more memories made there but I look forward to sharing my love of baseball with my son as he gets older.