Christina and Benjamin

We met in Houston in 2012, when we were both in graduate school. Music brought us together and has been at the center of our lives. Christina is a professional pianist, and Ben is a composer and pianist. We both adore children and have worked extensively with them as music teachers. We each come from very tight-knit families and have nine nieces and nephews. By the time we got married in 2015, we knew that we wanted to start a family of our own. We were so overjoyed to learn we were pregnant in 2017.

Devastatingly, that pregnancy ended in a loss at nine weeks. After another miscarriage in 2018 and two more years of trying, we went to see Dr. Jennifer Hirshfeld-Cytron in 2020. While we were relieved to hear that we are biologically capable of conceiving and having children, it made it even more frustrating that we had not been able to get pregnant again. We tried IUI this past summer, but that unfortunately failed.

We were overjoyed and in disbelief when we learned that we were the recipients of a grant. We have been wanting to try IVF because of its higher success rate, but with our insurance not covering fertility treatment or medications, it was not something we were able to seriously consider before. We are so grateful to have renewed hope in starting our family, thanks to the Chicago Coalition for Family Building and our wonderful team of doctors and nurses at Fertility Centers of Illinois.

Christina and Benjamin are recipients of a donated IVF cycle through our Partner Practice, Fertility Centers of Illinois. We are excited to share that in February 2022, Christina and Benjamin welcomed their son, Adrian, to the world!