It's out of our hands...

Our I600 is in the mail. We're mailing the last papers to Dillon today as well. For the most part, getting Paxton home is out of our hands. We have to finish our education requirements and will do that in a couple of weeks when we take our E & P class in Tulsa. We're working on getting a will made up and we have to take a first aid/CPR class soon. Other than that, we're done! The paper trail is almost complete!

Legals

Our legals for Paxton came in the mail today! We've got most everything ready, just need to get a couple of papers notarized and we'll be done with our part of the paperwork! Nearly a year after we sent in our first application and we're nearly done with the whole process. Sometimes it seems surreal that this has happened so fast. Pray now for a quick finalization process!

Not much is happening in the Efird household! We had a long weekend. We had a birthday party at Chuck E. Cheese's this weekend that went much longer than anyone should have to endure!

Sunday after church our children's director and I took all the 1st & 2nd graders to the pumpkin patch. I'd post pictures, but that would mean I'd have to get out of this chair, and I'm not really that motivated. SO a picture less post. It was a good day overall and the weather was beautiful. Our church also hosted Biker Sunday yesterday. I had nursery but from what I hear it was pretty cool. After church all the biker's had lunch on us and went for a ride around the Russellville area.

We were also told on Friday that we had legals for Paxton! First step in getting him home. We will get them in the mail tomorrow and should have them back in the mail on Wednesday! So yay for step one.

New give away

At Good Happenings! Check them out. Cool stuff plus really good adoption info.

San Diego

The kids and I went to San Diego this past week to see my brother graduate from Marine boot camp. We arrived late late Wednesday night and came home Saturday evening. We had family day on Thursday where we got to see just glimpses of Billy for the first half of the day. Him running, him standing at attention for an hour, then we got to eat lunch with him and hang out around the base the rest of the day. Most of you know that Billy and I aren't extremely close, but it was nice to see him. To see him grown up. To see him clean and happy and proud of himself. Friday was his graduation. After his graduation he got to leave base. He has a 10 day leave. Billy and I took Xavier, Naia, and his little girl, Kailie, to the San Diego Zoo that afternoon. I went there as a kid when I lived there and remember it. Of course, it was nothing like I remember!, but it was neat to go back there. Saturday we spent flying home. It was a quick, great trip! We're so proud of him! Enjoy the pictures of the trip!



Xavier & Naia in front of the Marine symbol.






Billy on Family Day. He's the one in the very middle. Billy again.



The Galapagos tortoise that I'm sure was there 20 years ago when I lived in San Diego!




Xavier climbing a tree.


A meerkat. Xavier loves watching Meerkat manor on Animal Planet and this was probably his favorite animal to see.



Panda Bears. We've seen them at the Memphis Zoo, but these were way more active! They were eating and running around while we were there! There was a huge line to see them and they didn't let you stay too long, but they were really cool!

Still here...

I promise I didn't just drop of the edge of the earth! The kids and I went to sunny CA for a few days! I'll post lots of details and pics tomorrow!

Update on Paxton

We got some new pictures of Paxton yesterday! I'm really anxious to see what our new written report says about him! Also, Jan said we have a video coming in the mail soon! He's changed so much just in the past couple of weeks! He seems so much "older" now. He's lost his baby looks! And it appears as though he's had a haircut! Enjoy!

You know you want to...

I know all of you waiting moms are just itching to call or email Jan to see if she got any video or pictures of your cutie pies! Come on, you know you want to!

The weekend...

Well it's finally Sunday and our lives can get back to a little normalcy!

Friday night we trucked it to Mena after I picked up the boys from school and dropped off our neighbor. It's a 2 hour drive to Mena. A long drive where not many radio stations pick up! The kids were pretty good though, which was nice. Then another 2 hour drive back home the next day.

When did you start to think of the town that you live in now as home? I was thinking about this when we were driving home from Mena, thinking I would be glad to get home. I lived in Mena all my life until I got married. Then we moved to Russellville. I've lived here for 8 years now. It's our home. I'm not sure when I first starting thinking of Russellville as home and not Mena. I loved growing up in Mena, but I'm not sure I could ever go back to living there. Maybe if something happened to Brent, the kids and I might go back, but I'm honestly just not sure. Does living here just a mere 8 years make this our home? Is it just a sense of feeling "home"? I'm not really sure. I just know that this is our home and it was good to come back to it!

Today we had just another uneventful Sunday. Our pastor is preaching a series on Generations from Psalms 78. We started with the Builders from ages 66 & up. Then came the Boomers 46-65, then today was the Busters 29-44. We will be next week, the Bridgers. 28-18. Each week the generation coming up has prayed for the generation that we were talking about. It's been really neat. I do sort of feel like a "baby" in the church since we fall into the youngest age group! I can't wait to see what he says about us though, and to us. It will be really good!

Tonight was one of the first times in a while that we didn't go out to eat after church. We were just really tired. And the kids and I are leaving for San Diego on Wednesday afternoon to see my brother graduate from Marine bootcamp! We're going to the zoo while we're there!

Okay, so we didn't make it...

We couldn't post every day for a week. We missed a day already, but I am going to say that I was out of town AND just kind of thought that Brent might update since he was home alone for the night!

The kids and I are in Mena for the day. We're getting baby clothes out of storage here and going through stuff and getting the kids' clothes ready for San Diego next week.

It was so fun to go through Xavier's baby clothes and to actually find stuff that Paxton will be able to wear this winter and summer. Sweet baby clothes from when Xavier was the ONLY grandchild! And sweet new baby clothes for Paxton for when he gets here.

So this is it for now. More tomorrow I'm sure!

Brent posting here, beware...

Ladies, this post is for all your husbands. You can still read if you want, but i might bore you with my 'man talk'...

So guys, how many of you got new backgrounds for your computers whenever you got that referral picture? I DID. Pictures have also seemed to be placed at other strategic locations (in my truck, on my desk at work, in my bible, and others...) Funny story of how we finally ended up getting those pictures. We did the online thing to our friendly local 'wally-world'. We get there and their machine was broken, strike one. We didn't have our sd card with us either, so back home we came. We think hey, we can use walgreens online, haha, strike 2 they don't do the online at our walgreens. SO, we finally had to do something to get pictures of the boy to show off to everyone. The sd card traveled back to wally-world, and we now have pictures. Not the best quality of course, those quick things aren't that good quality, but they caught my at a near desperate moment i guess. And like i said, i have pictures everywhere now, and I love it. Its great to be able to finally put a name and face together to this baby boy that we've all been waiting so long for.

The referral call (as I saw it). After one of those 'long days at work', yeah, you know what I am talking about, I got home and was just relaxing by playing some sudoku (yes, in the bathroom, you can laugh, its ok). Yeah, I'm a geek i know. Dania was completely beside herself on the phone, so i immediately knew what was going on. While I kept my macho, cool joe attitude, I was really excited inside. We looked at the paperwork after the phone call and immediately started doing our research. It was a long night, since I needed to study for a test at work the next day (I'm in reactor operator class, fun stuff). I got up extra early the next morning to head to work, leaving the busy work to Dania to run around and do. I think I might have had a few phone calls at work that day, which was nice as updates to what was going on, but i was trying to study hard for a test at noon. And man, it was a hard test too (I passed with a 90%). So, after all that was over, i finally got to call Dania and talk about the little guy, and we had no issues with accepting the referral.

I got home early that day and we were just waiting for our social worker to e-mail us a picture. Seems like it took a long time, I was stalking Dania's email inbox. Whenever we finally got it, much excitement was in the air. Such a good looking little guy. I guess somewhere inside I'm a big softie. I really thought that it would be hard to keep Dania from being overly 'depressed' so to say about not being able to go get him now. I think its the opposite though. I'm ready to go, put me on a plane tomorrow. I don't care that there is a million and four things that have to be done here at the house before we bring Paxton home. I guess in the next few months, I'll have to work on those to keep me busy. We've got the adoption education coming up in a few weeks that we're currently planning on going to also and hoping to meet some of you guys in person.

Well, I guess I'm done with my post here. It's been fun, I'll have to do it again sometime. And ladies, don't be 'blog-hogs', let the husband say something sometime... HAHA! (PS i changed up the music!!!)

p.s. another cool giveaway.....

All in the phone call...

So most of you are wanting the details of our referral! So here goes. It's nothing different but it is certainly special to us.

Thursday, Oct. 2, was a normal day. I had had a feeling all day that the phone could ring, but I think seriously I'd been having that feeling for a few months at that point! It was my car pool day so I took the boys to school and then Naia to school. Went and worked out that morning and then came home to do laundry. Thursday is my second laundry day of the week! Brent went to work as usual. And oddly, we had lunch together. At Italian Gardens, where I don't usually eat b/c they don't have any whole wheat noodles! He usually gets home about 4/5 but today he got home at 3:30. Just as we were coming in from picking up kids from school and dropping off our neighbor. I was sitting on the bed when the phone rang. I answered it and it was our social worker, Ed.

He asked if I had a few mintues that he had somethings to talk to me about. I told him I had all the time he needed. At this point, I was running through the house looking for Brent. Who could not be found! I only half listened to Ed as he was telling me about a baby boy born on April 19th. Finally I found Brent. He'd been in the bathroom! I pointed to the phone and was smiling and still trying to listen to Ed! Finally I asked Ed if he could go back over everything again so Brent could hear, so I put him on speaker phone and he went back over everything about this baby boy. He is 5 1/2 months old, developing right where he's supposed to be. He can hold up his head, roll from side to side, put weight on his feet, etc. So exciting. So we tell him, yes we'd like to see his file and take the information for our doctor's to look at. So we get the file and on Friday morning I take the file to our doctor who is also an adoptive parent, except that he's out of town until Monday! So I go ahead and take it to one of our friends that's also a doctor. He looked at it and said everything looked great and that he didn't have any concerns about anything on there! We knew it was a go from there!

We called Ed back and asked to see a picture before we got the file to say yes for sure. Ed emailed us his picture about 2 hours later. We were officially in love. He was precious. At this point we hadn't told the kids, and we hadn't picked a name b/c our original name, Max, didn't really go with Sol, his Korean name. We went ahead and told the kids. They weren't nearly as excited as I thought they'd be! Naia even said a little while after, "I'm just not really sure if I'm going to like this baby or not."

We finally decided on the name Paxton from our list and used Sol as his middle name. THEN we started calling our families! I called my mom and when I told her we were having a baby, she asked if I were pregnant! After she realized I was talking about a baby from Korea, she was really excited, but disappointed b/c she was on her way to the lake and wouldn't be able to see a picture until Sunday afternoon! Brent didn't get to tell his mom immediately b/c she was in the car on the way home from work. I called our neighbor and great friend and told her and she was so excited for us! She's expecting a little boy in December so we know that our boys will grow up being good friends!

Saturday I was going on a Ladies trip with our church. Me and several "older" ladies. One of our very close friends was going and I couldn't wait to show her our picture and tell her the news. But of course, she was the last one to arrive! I rushed her into the office where all my stuff was and showed her the picture and she was so excited for us! Tears and everything. So the 1 1/2 hour trip to Little Rock, was spent talking about Paxton, when he'd be home, and baby showers!

Sunday at church was also exciting! We got to share with people that had been praying for us and that have helped us and supported us through the last 8 years of college, kids, and everything in between! So it was a weekend of celebrating! We have all the paperwork ready to be turned back in to Dillon today. It's signed and ready to go. And in 3-4 months we can bring our baby home!

As part of our 1 post a day for a week, we'll post tomorrow about the process and what happens next for everyone not familiar with the Korea process!

Official Paperwork

We got our official referral paperwork today! So exciting! When the fed ex "stork" pulled up this afternoon I took a picture of the truck coming into the driveway. Then I took his picture as he walked down the sidewalk in front of the house. He wanted to know what was in that package that was so exciting! So I told him it was paperwork for our new baby in Korea. He thought that was pretty cool that he got to deliver them!

We got everything notarized today. Thank goodness that we have a friend that will do it for us for free! That was a lot of notarizing today! Now we just have to finish the I864 and the I864 A. Then we'll be ready to send it back off tomorrow! Another week closer to bringing home our sweet baby boy!

Sometimes things sneak up on you...

Like a referral!

With great joy in our hearts, we introduce you to:

Paxton Sol Efird

April 19th, 2008

I prayed for this child, and the LORD has granted me what I asked of him.
1 Samuel 1:27

Nothing like a good movie...

So today I had a little down time. House was clean for bible study group tonight, nothing else to do, etc...SO i watched a movie I had DVR'd. How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days. Great movie. I love it! Made me forget about the waiting. And it's hilarious! It has one of my favorite songs in it...You're So Vain. Love it.

The kids both had school today so the house was reletively quite. Just me and the pups! I had a really good workout today too. It's not been going to great, working out. I'm usually just worn out when I'm done, but today I felt great. Brent and I got to have lunch together as well, which never happens! And the biggest bonus of all, the weather has been beautiful! A perfect 75 degrees all day. Slight breeze. Perfect day.

Hope everyone is having a great day!

Strength Will Rise

Strength will rise as we wait upon the Lord
We will wait upon the Lord
We will wait upon the Lord
Our God, You reign forever
Our hope, our Strong Deliverer
You are the everlasting God The everlasting God
You do not faint You won't grow weary
Our God, You reign forever Our hope, our Strong Deliverer
You are the everlasting God The everlasting God
You do not faint You won't grow weary
You're the defender of the weak You comfort those in need You lift us up on wings like eagles