Now...How About Ours? "There's this guy I want you to meet."

Germán and I began our journey together almost 40 years ago, when I was 19 and he was 25.  I'm going to give you a "framework" into which we can go placing the events of our rather unusual beginning.

Germán is Ecuadorian by birth but, being adventurous, had spent some time in the States. He had a fairly serious girlfriend, but they broke up when she let him know she would not go to Ecuador to live. So he decided he wouldn't marry an American (!) and came back to Quito to look for the wife for whom he'd been praying for two years.

I was raised in Ecuador, having arrived here when I was one year, nine months old with my missionary parents. Most of my schooling was in Ecuador,  in English, in missionary schools, but I had Ecuadorian and friends, and spoke Spanish fluently. Since I had skipped a grade, I graduated early, and stayed for a year with my parents in Santo Domingo (Ecuador), the small town that was a hub for the different groups of the indigenous people with whom they worked.  I worked home-schooling several ex-pat kids.  I also had a sort of serious Ecuadorian boyfriend, and my dad wisely insisted I do at least one year of college before considering marriage. I returned to Ecuador the next year and broke up with my boyfriend two weeks later.  My mother asked, "What happened?"  So I told her. Then she said, "There's this guy I want you to meet."

She had already met Germán, as he had returned from the States several months before I did. He had told her that he'd been praying for a wife for two years, but she hadn't appeared yet.  And Mom thought, "Well, she'll be here soon."  Germán's brother Enrique lived in Santo Domingo, too, and between him and my mom, they decided that Germán and I would be a good match... and plotted accordingly!

Not long after I got back, Germán decided to go to Guayaquil, where another brother pastored a church, as he figured church was the best place to find a Christian wife.  He had to come through Santo Domingo, so he stopped in to see his brother Enrique...who saw a great opportunity!  There was a song night at our house that night, so he brought Germán, persuaded him to stay over, and took him to church the next day. Germán had been praying for a musical wife, and noticed that I played the pump organ.  Other details "clicked", and that afternoon he asked me out...and the fun started...and interesting things began to happen!

Meet me here in a few days (probably Thursday) for the continuation: "Wedding Suit and Weekends" !!