i wish i had some pictures to share

just a little news in my world you might want to be aware of...
on july 19th, i asked renata to marry me! some of you who read this know her; some of you do not, so i will give you a little background...

we met back in 2005 while we both were in spain. it was basically my last full week in spain after my two year stay, and i was in the southern city of malaga helping translate for a group of students who had come down from northern europe to do some community outreach in the area. most of the people were from norway, sweden, denmark, germany and the like, so they spoke english rather well, but very little spanish. i noticed one of the leaders from their group, however, speaking spanish, so i asked around where she was from. i was told she was a brazilian that had been raised in miami.

i was stunned! having so little time left in spain, i had been planning for months what i would be doing upon returning to the USA. i decided (some months in advance) to finish my schooling at florida international university in miami. i then debated with myself about approaching her and talking to her about miami, what it was like, about churches and other opportunities in the area... we were both encouraged and exchanged email addresses. she was also in her last week in europe after working and touring with the norway-based organization "jesus revolution." she was going to be on vacation in brazil for a few months after leaving spain, and then would be continuing her collegiate education in miami in january, 2006.

so fate (?) would have it that i arrived to miami the 3rd of january, while she arrived the 2nd. we had exchanged a few emails while i was in tampa and she was in rio, beginning to get to know a little bit about each other. needless to say, after a couple of weeks of hanging out and getting to know each other, we decided to take the plunge and begin a relationship on january 19, 2006.

fast forward a year and a half later, after a nice night in miami beach, we stopped at a lifeguard station and listened to the waves, just as we had done on our very first night together as an "official" item. i pulled out the little box, showing her the ring as i opened it up and asked her to marry me. and of course, she said yes! so now we're very happily engaged, with a wedding and a life together in the works.