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.

Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Easter 2009

Easter 2009

A New Bike

Austin's Truck

Well, things are getting a little better - not a lot, but a little.
The days are slowly, slowly improving, but not the nights. Leila has always been a great sleeper. She normally sleeps 10-12 hrs at night - and takes 1 or 2 naps during the day. Not since her surgery though. I have not had a full night sleep in over a week (which I could really use). She's also still taking pain medicine pretty much around the clock.
We thought she was clingy before, now she's REALLY clingy. That's a little hard to take after awhile too.
I alternate between thinking that surely it's been long enough and things should be better by now - and thinking that they did some pretty serious surgery there, gave her a new mouth, and that's going to take quite awhile to get over.

Easter was nice. It wasn't overly warm, but at least it was pretty out.
Since Leila is still on soft baby food, we all have to hide when we want to eat our Easter candy. That's not so fun.

She got a basket from the Easter bunny and one from her Mama and Papa. I put her candy up so it will be waiting on her when the doctor gives the okay.
Leila also got a pink and purple tricycle from her Aunt Juanita and Uncle Darres. She can't reach the pedals yet, but she's really enjoying being pushed around on it.

Austin LOVED Easter this year too. He got himself a truck. It's a little red 4x4 Toyota pickup. He's been working the last 2 summers and saving money. He paid part of it, and we paid part of it. It wasn't really an Easter present. We just happened to find it the week before Easter, so we went ahead and got it, but didn't tell him until Easter morning. It made it more fun that way.

Poor Darrell - he's the only one that didn't get any 'wheels'. Don't worry about him though - he found a Wii game in his basket, so he's just fine.

2 comments:

Susan said...

She looks like she's doing great. I know the sleep things a killer, but it will come - we had the same issues & it took a few weeks to get back to the norm. Congrats to Austin on the truck - It's sobering to think that you have a child driving a car & one driving a tricycle! Can't wait to see you all in the summer!

April 20, 2009 at 2:43 PM
Tim and Tanya said...

Nice ride Austin! You have now motivated my Austin to pass his test to get his permit in a few weeks! Sure wish we could come out this summer and see y'all. It would sure be fun to hang with everyone again! Say hello to the family for us!

April 23, 2009 at 12:14 AM

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)