Background Part 1: Early On

Betty and I were married on Aug. 31, 1998. If you were at the wedding, raise your hand up! I was (and still am) incredibly excited and honored to be married to a woman of Betty's caliber. There is no one like her, so I was elated when she accepted my proposal. We made plans, the big day came, hundreds of people showed up (some of which we did not even know) ... it was great.

Even before this happy event occurred, Betty and I had talked about the prospect of having kids. We realized early on that because of several medical factors, Betty and I would not likely have our own biological offspring without taking on a fairly serious amount of medical risk. We knew that we were marrying each other for each other, not necessarily for kids, and so were happy to move forward nonetheless. We heeded the advice of our doctors and moved on. We had, for the most part, abandoned the hope of having biological children.

And so it was for almost a decade.

NEXT

- Alvaro