We have a friend in common, Lisa Gallant (she is Joao’s adopted grandmother). João came to the States during his senior year of high school and attended Benjamin Bosse High School in Evansville, IN. He was brought here by some missionaries he met in Brazil when he was just 6 years old. They do beautiful ministry work at the place João was born, and summer 2019 I had the privilege to visit and be part of. While in the States, João stayed with Ben Gallant and his family. João has known Ben since he was 6 years old. Ben and many other Brazilians and Americans had small groups with kids from a favela in Brazil where they would meet weekly and study the bible. João was one of those kids that were reached by their ministry. Unfortunately, Ben had to return to the States shortly after, but João and him kept in touch throughout the years, until Joao came for high school in 2015. While João was in high school, I had classes with Lisa Gallant (Ben’s mother) and I attended her class for a couple of years while in high school. In 2016, after graduation, João had to return home and stayed there for about 18 months where he worked at a museum. Meanwhile, I graduated from high school. In the spring semester of 2018, João returned to the States and began to attend Murray State, and I would begin to attend the same school the following semester. And when I mentioned to Mrs. Gallant that I was going to Murray State, she mentioned that she had someone that she knew over there, and that it would be good for us to get in touch since we were fellow believers. We got in touch on Facebook and when the semester started, he showed me around campus.

There's a long backstory behind this date but it would be far too long and confusing to write all out here. Long story short, I decided to stay in Murray over Labor Day weekend in order to fully adjust to living at college. As we were both in town, João and I decided to make a short day trip somewhere "as friends". We originally planned on Nashville, TN but it seemed a bit too far for one day. So instead, we decided on Clarksville, TN. We began our date that we didn't call a date yet by going on a short trail. While walking back over a short bridge João decided to pop the question of if I would be interested in dating him. So I asked him what was the most important thing to him, and he answered "God", which was the answer I was looking for. We decided to spend the day together and make a decision at the end of the day. We went to a cute market in Clarksville and had coffee and lunch there after shopping around. João bought me a small heart sign that I was enthralled with. We had a fun day, we came back to Murray, and I dropped him off at his apartment. We ended up not making a decision on our way back. However, soon after I returned back to my dorm, João called because he accidentally forgot his apartment keys in my car. We decided to bring up the decision and in the end decided we would begin dating. We both prayed together before I returned to my dorm. The crazy thing about all of this is that we knew each other for barely three weeks. And now WE ARE GETTING MARRIED!!!!

It was during quarantine (June 2020). I came to Evansville to visit Haley over the weekend. On that weekend, we talked to her parents about the desire of getting married. Of course, they were a little shocked but we were able to have a good conversation. We expressed how much we wanted to give the next step in our relationship, even though we know that is not going to be an easy task. I brought the engagement ring just in case the conversation went well and I felt confident enough to propose to Haley. She, of course, had no idea that I had that with me. During the previous weeks, I was taking to our friends that I wanted to propose and I would be in Evansville that weekend. I wanted to have a day to take pictures of all of us with my camera. You know?! It was a nice summer day with beautiful young adults adventuring through town hahahaha I told them that if everything went well, I would like to propose to Haley, so we all had to act in a way where she would not suspect. Fun fact is that I was telling her to get her nails done the whole week and she kept asking why. Oh, I also sent a message to the wrong group chat once and she almost saw it hahaha. We went to downtown Evansville to have breakfast and take pictures during the morning, until we found a staircase where it would be the perfect set up for a group picture. So I put the camera on the tripod and set the timer on to take pictures. And then, without her noticing, I set the camera to record and ran back to the group and took the ring out. I tapped on her back a couple of times and she turned around. It was Saturday, June 13th (a day after the Brazilian Valentine’s Day) when I asked the most beautiful soul I have ever met to be my wife.