We've known that we wanted to be together, basically, since our first date. Neither of us knew what we were about to embark upon when we first met. Both of our lives were at turning points and we were looking for somebody to take that adventure with -- on a little level! Christina was looking for a "Tuesday, Friday, maybe a Sunday" kind of situation, while Frank was looking for a "Let's go to a bar, or, There's a new art installation! Wanna go?" kind of arrangement. Well, those ideas were not in the cards. God had a greater plan! We felt the flutters that come with the beginning of a relationship, for sure. (Christina is writing this...) He made me feel a way that I never knew was possible. He is caring and attentive. He is a doting father and a loving son. I got to meet his beautiful daughter, Analisa, and his amazing mother, Tina, at Thanksgiving; just about 1 month after our first date! (PRESSURE, MUCH!?) From there, we were able to understand the familial aspects that are most important to us. He heard all about my sisters (I am one of six girls!) and I heard about the legacy of the Gutierrez and Valdez families. (Christina really is the detail tracker, so she asked a lot of questions and tried to piece together every element of this guy!) Meanwhile, my sisters were the true gatekeepers of my heart. They knew who this "Frank guy" (as my youngest sister Aurora called him) was and that I was diving straight into this relationship. They had questions. I had questions. What did God have to say about all of this? We would soon see!

Both Frank and I had a history. We had both promised "forever" to someone else. However, God didn't have our previous spouses in mind. Those nuptials were stepping stones to the bigger plan He had for us. All the while, we are grateful for what those relationships offered us. They got us closer to our Father God, and closer to finding one another. As we addressed very real life situations, a VERY real life situation came to surface and we were blessed to encounter it. Since we got together, we decided that Tina, Frank's beautiful mother, would be a bi-coastal gal! Every opportunity we had, we would book her a plane ticket, let her know to pack her bag, and give her the details when they were necessary. The trooper that she was, she ALWAYS obliged. On her trip to NYC in November 2019, we knew something was different. When Tina got back to California she found herself in the emergency room. After that, Christina never left her side. She packed her NYC life and moved to CA with Tina, set to find all the adventure we could through life! From that moment forward, Christina & Frank were devoted to taking care of Tina in any and every way. Tina was an ALS warrior. She took on Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, also known as Lou Gehrig's Disease, with grace and tenacity. As of December 2019, we became her full-time caregivers. Christina moved cross-country to set them up in LA, while Frank continued working in NY until he was able to go on leave. In February 2020, Christina & Tina flew to NYC to visit Frank for a few weeks, a blessing we'd never be able to refute. When Tina & Christina were set to return to LA, the Covid-19 pandemic shut everything down, so they then began creating new roots with Frank in Brooklyn. It would be 7 months until Tina returned to LA. We were blessed (if we could find a silver lining in it all) to be together on the east coast through the pandemic. Little did we know, the clock was ticking until Tina would be taken home to Heaven!