I truly love writing for BMWK. Not only do I have an opportunity to spread positive messages about black love, and advise couples on how to love stronger, I also get the chance to interview amazing couples. Couples who make love look damn good and who are making huge impacts on their communities.  Imagine being married for 12 years, raising two awesome young daughters, being an elected official, an Attorney and entrepreneur, who is married to a President and CEO of a large organization, who also happens to be an entrepreneur, and still being able to prioritize your life in such a way that God, love, family and service are ever present. Whew, that was a mouthful. But the Devines are doing just that and then some.  Through love, God, and overcoming the loss of their son, the Devines are definitely a power couple you want to know.

Tameika Isaac Devine is the first African-American female to serve on City Council and the first African-American to be elected At-Large (Columbia, South Carolina), she is also an Attorney and business owner. Jamie Devine is President and CEO of the Community Assistance Provider (CAP), a business owner, and Real Estate Developer. With all of that on their plates, they have also found the time to balance a love life as well as a healthy household. This couple reminds us all, that all things are possible. Check out this great interview with a couple who makes you rethink what you thought you knew about love and success.

BMWK: Thank you so much for making time to speak with us. We really appreciate it and are so excited to hear your story.

Tameika: We are glad that you called. We actually met Lamar at a conference and ironically enough, I was telling him that we learned of the website and everything that he and Ronnie are doing about a year or so ago. So my husband and I went to a conference in Atlanta and Lamar was there on the mic, and when he said his name, I looked to my husband and said that’s the guy I’ve been wanting to get in touch with. God just put it all together.

BMWK: You said something interesting, that you had been wanting to share your story. What made you want to share it period, and what made you want to share it specifically with BMWK?

Tameika: Well, actually we’ve shared our story through a couple of different outlets. Really, even before the loss of our son, Jamie and I had actually been talking about getting out there more. Let me back up some, Jaime and I are both elected officials and entrepreneurs and lead very busy lives. With all the things we do in the community and with our business lives, our family and children come first. We always felt like that (concept) is sometimes lost especially in younger couples.

Everyone is trying to do so much and sometimes your family and faith get back seats to careers and notoriety. Last year, the two of us went through a transition. We’ve been married almost 12 years now. The last two or three years we went through transition with the friendships we had for many years. The couples really weren’t in the same place that we are spiritually and family wise. It was really a tough lesson for us to learn. Jamie and I are best friends, so we love to be together.

So we actually got involved with our Couples for Christ Ministry at our church and we found that a lot of the folks we were talking to who were understanding what we were going through, were older couples. They had gone through it too. You will have couples in their marriages not at the same place you are in. Haven’t matured into the same place you have. We felt like the growth we went through was a lesson God had for us. Even before we loss our son, we had been talking about doing more. We both do public speaking, and we’d like to do more with couples ministries and couples in general. Showing them you can have a God-Centered marriage and be family oriented, and not feel like you’re missing out hanging with the girls or guys.

In August, we loss our son. I was 37-weeks pregnant and our son was stillborn.

How we lost James Henry is, he was a very active baby. It was kind of like a joke because my 4 year old would see my stomach moving, and say James Henry is moving, he was always, always moving.  He was very active, and that’s how he ended up having a knot in his umbilical cord. So that’s what happened. There’s not a lot of research and study on how do you detect umbilical cord issues and so we feel like our experience has helped us bring attention around this.

Most people, think past first trimester, that you’re safe.  The likelihood of something happening to your baby is few and far between. I was 37 weeks, he was due to be delivered two weeks after. We went in on a Monday, had a normal ultrasound, strong heartbeat, everything is fine. We go back on Thursday and there is no heartbeat. It can happen so quickly. People just don’t know that and that’s why we founded the foundation.