We’re David and Lois McBeath. We live in Point Pleasant, WV – a small town along the Ohio River on the western side of the state. We have 2 sons. Austin is 15. He’s a sophomore at Pt. Pleasant High School. Darrell is almost 12. He’s in the 6th grade at Roosevelt Elementary.
We actually began our adoption journey more than 10 years ago. I saw an ad in the newspaper about Chinese babies. We called about it, but it just wasn’t even feasible at that time in our life. All these years, it was always there, stuck somewhere in the back of our minds. I don't know why exactly – it just was. The thought never completely went away.
We also talked off and on about having another child. Our house was only 3 bedrooms, and we know the boys could have been in a room together, but we didn't want to do that if we didn't have to. In the spring of 2006, for some reason (I don't recall exactly what) - it came up again. We started thinking and talking - why not? So we started checking into it more. We did a lot of research online. The more we found out, the more we felt a calling, a desire and even a need to do this.
We started the adoption and added onto the house all at the same time. It took about 6 months to get the paperwork together. Then about another month after we sent it to China for them to translate it and 'log us in' (11/6/06). That's when we started to officially wait.
We finally got "THE CALL" on 7/13/08. It was a Sunday afternoon! After 2 ½ years, we are finally going to get our baby!


Leila Ann McBeath, formally known as Shun Xi Yi, was born on Oct 29, 2007. She had a cleft lip and cleft palate. The lip has been repaired, but not the palate. (We'll have to do that when we get her home.) She's in the Children's Welfare Institute of Shunde District of Foshan City, which is located in the Guangdong Province, in the southern part of China.

Shunde, the hometown of flowers, is one of four cities under the jurisdiction of Foshan City. Covering an area of 806 sq meters and with a population of 1.05 million, Shunde City is situated in the middle of the fertile Pearl River Delta, between Guangzhou and Hong Kong. It was set up as a county in the 3rd year (1452 AD) of the Jintai reign of the Ming Dynasy (1368-1644), and conferred with the administrative status of a city in 1992 by the State Council.

Foshan City is also where the actor Bruce Lee was from.

Wednesday, September 24, 2008

Wednesday - 9/24

Not much today. We were supposed to go to Shamian Island to do a little more shopping, but didn't get to go. Hong Kong is only 3 hrs away and they got hit with a typhoon yesterday, so we've had alot of rain yesterday and today both. As a result, Shamian Island had some street flooding that prevented us from going.
Instead, we went to a Chinese folk art museum. It wasn't very big, but it was neat. They had some beautiful embroidery, which China is famous for. The most amazing part though, was the ivory carvings. They were extremely intricate and absolutely unbelievable. Unfortnately, I have no pictures. Since we were supposed to go shopping today, and go there tomorrow, we did not take our camera. Trust me though, the carvings were something else.

Another thing we found out - Coffee shops are not really coffee shops here, they're bars.

Our paperwork goes to the consulate tomorrow, so we have to hang around the hotel room in the morning, in case there are any questions about any of it. We actually go to the consulate ourselves on Friday.
We have our last group dinner tomorrow night. Things are winding down here.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

hello McBeaths
i cant wait to see Leila Ann she is so adorable
we cant wait to see all of you especially Darrell, because we miss you on Sunday night church.
well see you soon
tori walker

Anonymous said...

Hi,

We are an AWAA family waiting on "the Call". We have been following yours and 6 other families in your travel group's journey. Please know that your daily stories are great encouragement for those of us still in the waiting process!

Blessings to you!

Shari M
Humble, TX
9/26/08