On Saturday night Ewout van Oosten sat with me in our dining room and asked for the hand of our last remaining unmarried daughter!!! I felt honoured to be asked and I was delighted to be able to give my very willing permission. Here at last is the man who could capture my daughters elusive heart. On Sunday they were walking back from church through the buttercup fields that look out towards the Pennines. "Alison Rachel Lyth - will you marry me. " The Dutch are delightfully direct and Ewout no exception.
Ewout and Ali met at an OM conference in Germany in early March and the sparks began to fly almost immediately. They have met often and spoken for many, many hours on Skype across the Atlantic. This finally culminated yesterday in the proposal.
Ewout works with youth from disadvantaged backgrounds in Delft in Holland. It is a pioneer work and very much appreciated by the authorities in Delft as well as by the Churches. He is highly respected and is doing a wonderful work.
The plan is that Ali will join him and concentrate first on getting into Dutch culture and language. Ewout has started her off by buying an orange football jersey. We have all been cheering for Dutch victory in the football. Of course this is made somewhat easier by the fact that the English team was knocked out before the competition ever started.
This momentous intervention throws a spanner in the works of Ali's plans to go the USA. Of course God in his wisdom had not allowed here to get a visa for the USA and so she had a feeling of frustration over that great delay. Now it all becomes clear.
A couple of years ago a friend gave me a bottle of port that was first put into casks in the late 1800s. I made a mental promise that this woiuld be drunk in celebration of the engagement of the last of our girls - Alison.
