I have been waiting for this day to come for a long time...

Today i was waiting for sarah to come home from school at the bus stop when a text message came through on my phone from my Daddy, as soon as i saw his name come up on the phone i panicked as they do not normally text my American cell phone due to the high charges for him to send and for me to receive a text message. I opened the message which read: "I can't tell you but i wish andrea could, call your auntie sarah asap. Love you." My eyes welled up immediately a i assumed that this was going to be bad news that i was going to have to receive when i called my Auntie Sarah. I read the message again and again and i was still confused by the content of it. It was my dad's birthday so i was hoping and preying that Andrea had not taken a bad turn on his birthday, as he would have been so upset and deserved nothing more than to have a nice day. I was aware that my boss had told me not to make calls to over seas but this was important and was playing on my mind. So i crossed my fingers and dialed my dads cell phone number. Much to my surprise Andrea picked up, before she even had chance to say anything i said "is everything ok"..."you don't know do you" she said "no i don't what is it"........"he finally asked me..Me and your dad are getting married" she screamed!!!! I felt the tears dripping down the side of my face but this time they where tears of happiness.

My dad had planned for him and Andrea to go to Bristol (a near by city) for a romantic night away before Andrea started her second session of kemo therapy at the Hospital. Which we all knew about but little did we know that he was going to propose, none of our family even knew he had gone to buy her a ring. My dad was lucky that it all came through for him as hours before he had planned for them to go to dinner on a boat that Andrea loves as they had been before, Andrea got sick and they didn't think that they would make the dinner reservations. Thankfully she went to sleep for an hour and woke up feeling a little better. My dad had been in contact with the restaurant staff and had arranged with them that when it was time to receive the bill that they would give it to Andrea and on it would be the words "will you marry me". When the time came and they had finished there beautiful meal, as planned the nervous waitress walked over t the table and gave Andrea the bill....As soon as she saw the bill my dad said "her face lit up and she burst into tears". My dad then went over to her side and got down on one knee and asked her again "will you marry me"?? "Of course she screamed..yes" and he placed the ring on her finger.

Whilst on the phone to them i asked Andrea "what is your ring like", i was desperate to know. You could hear the happiness in her voice when she was describing it, she said "it is just what i wanted its perfect for me". Whilst i was on the phone to them they where back at there hotel room, ordering a bottle of champagne to celebrate and calling all our further family members to share the great news.

I was truly over the moon to hear about my dad proposing, as me and andrea had been anticipating this moment for a long time. After i told Andrea how happy i was one more time and told her i loved her she put my Dad on the phone. I wished him happy birthday and congratulations trying to fight back the tears of joy. He sounded so happy, in fact i don't think i have ever heard him that happy before. He said to me "Lacey..Are you proud of me" at that point i smiled so widely and answered "yes of course i am". If i am honest i have never been more proud of him and happy about the way our relationship is working out. I may not see my Dad due to the fact that i live in another country but we do always make time to talk on the phone at least once a week which is more than we used to talk on the phone when i lived in England. I now look ford to hearing his voice and asking him general questions about how he is and how his weekend was.

Andrea has brought me and my Dad much closer together, and i can never thank her enough for that alone.