We Met

Tina and I met in January 2000 in her office at the St. Charles Apartment Community, where she was an assistant manager and where I was living temporarily with my cousin Cesar. Having recently completed school in Miami, I was job hunting in Atlanta, and I frequently used the fax machine in Tina’s office. One day after an interview with the design department of a local candy manufacturer, I took some candy samples to Tina and noticed signs of attraction between us. A few days later we began dating and after several months, we became engaged. Both of our families were taken by surprise, but they were supportive and attended our September 16^th wedding in the Florida Keys, after which Tina and I honeymooned in the British Virgin Islands.

The first year went by very fast; we bought our first house together and moved in, Tina started a new job and continued to pursue a business degree, which, because of different reasons, had been an effort in progress for over ten years. Our lives were planned out methodically for years to come. However, we soon realized that things don’t always go the way we want them to and that if we wanted to expand our family, we needed to get started. This is the point where “Our Story” begins.

Our Story

After Tina stopped taking the pill, the same one she had been on for years, her cycle was irregular, and conception was difficult, if not impossible. Her gynecologist recommended that we continue trying on our own for at least a year. However, we decided that we wanted immediate results and, consequently, visited Dr. Bilek, a gynecologist who had delivered the daughter of one of Tina’s friends and who had worked at the same clinic where my mother had previously worked. Dr. Bilek prescribed Clomid, a medication taken for the first five days of the menstrual cycle to raise the hormone levels and, thereby, increase egg production, unfortunately, the medication produced an enlarged cyst that prevented the release of an egg. Since her teens, Tina had taken birth control pills to regulate her menstrual cycle and to prevent the formation of cysts. Now that she was off the pill, cyst development was a problem which had to be addressed immediately.