John spent the last two Saturdays covertly texting/talking with his daughters to help them surprise me. I’ve already told you about my birthday surprise on the 14th.

This week (9/20) he helped Anne (and James) surprised me with news of their engagement. James had called him on Friday afternoon to ask his permission to marry our daughter. (Laura had instructed John this summer that when the call came, he was not to tell even me.) Anne called him the next morning to help her set up a Skype date later in the day so she could tell me “face to face.” However, I was in the same room when her call came, so she had to invent a different agenda for her call and text with him later. When he told me she wanted to Skype again that evening, I wondered why she wanted to talk so much!

We are thrilled that Anne and James have come to this point in their relationship. We like James (a lot) and feel very comfortable with the idea of Anne marrying him as well as having him join our family. While we feel some sadness at the thought of her living permanently on the other side of the world, we sense how well she fits there, both in her ministry and in her relationship with her mountain man. (When Anne was 16 she fell “in love” with the mountains so it seems appropriate that she found a mountaineer to marry.) Best of all, we love seeing her blossom as a believer in the Capernwray and Raleigh Street community, and in her shared faith with James. It is so awesome to watch her grow in faith and love.

The wedding will most likely be in New Zealand and possibly not until November 2014. There are loads of details to be worked out, not only about the wedding, but visas and jobs, as well as the complications of my health, Laura & Taylor’s baby, James’ ABS schedule and the reversed seasons down under.

Here are some pictures of the happy couple at the scene of the crime: