Ethan Joshua Kessler

Over a year ago Tim and Stephanie, after several years of trying to get pregnant, began the adoption process to adopt a baby from Guatemala. Last spring they were "refered" Ethan, which basically meant that once all the paperwork cleared he would be theirs, kinda like he was put on hold for them. It was a very long drawn out year of adoption paperwork hassles and occasional photos and one video, before it was cleared to go to Guatemala to pick him up. During that year, as I mentioned in an earlier post and much to their surprise, Stephanie did get pregnant and they had Seth in February. Ethan was born in February too so they're almost exactly 1 year apart. It just so happened that they weren't going to be able to go pick up Ethan until after Tim left for Iraq. So, after a lot of prayer and consideration, it was decided that both mom and I would go with Stephanie and Seth to Guatemala, mom to help with Seth and me to help Stephanie with whatever official stuff she might need, translating and whatever. We decided it was best for me to leave Josiah here with Casey and Brenda (Casey's mom) and man was that hard to do! We were gone for a week and I've never even left Joe for a whole day, so it was very stretching for me! All in all, the trip went wonderfully, everything went as smooth as possible, and the most important thing, of course, we finally got Ethan! He's a very happy, healthy little guy, and a little on the wild side too.

He loved the pool!

Stephanie with her boys.

Seth is such a content baby, he handled the trip just fine!

Please keep Stephanie in your prayers as she really has her hands full with Tim being gone. Mom has been there helping out for several weeks now, and I'll go for a couple weeks when she leaves, I'm taking Joe with me this time of course! After that Stephanie is planning to go and stay with her parents for a while. And please pray for Ethan, that he would adjust well, so far he's doing great!

Okay, well, that's long enough for this one. Bye!