Ethan turned 1 year old on Sunday, June 8, 2008.

We celebrated Ethan’s birthday at Grandma’s house along with family and friends. The highlight of the day was watching Ethan dig into his first birthday cake (see photos below)!

This is a good time to remember the gift Ethan is to us — how God guided our steps throughout our inquiry into the possibility of adoption and the decision-making process, the choice between domestic or international adoption, the selection of an adoption agency, the application process, choosing a country from which to adopt, to name part of the process.

Beyond all of the decisions that we had to make, God’s hand has clearly been upon this entire journey. God worked out all the details according to his timetable — granting us a referral at the time of our dissertation proposal hearings, reaching the final step in the process at the time we completed the first draft of our last two chapters of our dissertations which cleared the way for us to make travel plans to Korea to welcome Ethan into our family, and still leaving us just enough time to complete our revisions and defenses in order to graduate in May 2008.

What an adventure this has been and, with God’s help, will continue to be!