Our Love Story

Placido and I met when I came over from Brazil and decided to attempt the entrance exam for medical school here in Bolivia. For more about why I ended up in Bolivia, you can read my testimony. When I arrived, classes had already begun but an exception was made and I was allowed to take the entrance exam. Having passed the exam, I started classes with two strikes against me: my late beginning (I was at least one week behind the others) and my lack of fluency (to put it mildly) in Spanish. Aware of these problems, my anatomy teacher told me he was assigning someone to help me. This person was, of course, Placido, who had also started late after transferring in from veterinary medicine. We had already met outside the anatomy room, and I had shot down his attempts at conversation. When Placido, at the teacher's prompting, offered me his help, I thanked him and told him I did not need help. He suggested I just let him see what I was working on. I proudly showed him my anatomy text, open to the chapter on arteries, to demonstrate how I was studying for the soon approaching exam on articulations. He pointed out my error without unnecessary humor at my expense and we started studying together. We had our first non-study date two weeks later, were engaged after four months and married 6 months after that, in Frenchtown, Montana, where my parents were furloughing from missionary work in Brazil. We became a team and God drew us into medical missions together. All these years later, and contrary to what some people predicted, we are still together, working shoulder to shoulder to serve Bolivia along with our children, José and Emily. We are grateful for the way we have enriched each others' lives and broadened each others' views through our cultural diversity. Together we are so much more than we would ever be alone.