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.
Tomorrow's the big day. Leila has her surgery. Surgery is scheduled for 11:30. We have to be there at 9:30. That means leaving our house around 7 AM. She can't have anything to eat or drink after midnight tonight. She will NOT be happy tomorrow. She's used to eating breakfast first thing when she gets up.
Surgery should take until almost 2:00. And she's only supposed to be in the hospital for one night.
I decided today that I needed to take a picture of her mouth. There are people that do not even know exactly what a cleft palate is. (It's a hole in the roof of her mouth.) Most people have never seen a cleft palate. More importantly though - when she gets older, LEILA may want to see what her mouth looked like for 17 months. And after tomorrow, it won't look like that anymore.
I started out trying to do this by myself. Trying to hold her back, tickle her so she'd laugh, and take a picture all at the same time - isn't exceptionally easy. David finally came in, and I convinced him that this NEEDED to be done. He did agree to help, but he didn't have a lot of time to spend on this all important task. Next we tried holding a cheerio in front of her nose, so she'd open her mouth to snap the picture. (She probably felt like a dog with a biscuit balanced on his nose.) Biggest problem with that, is that my camera isn't instantaneous. There's a slight delay between pushing the button and it actually taking the picture. I got lots of pictures of her chin, her nose, her tongue, etc. Finally through the course of all this hoopla I got one that I considered passable. Maybe that's only because I know what I'm looking at though.
2 comments:
We will be praying and if you need anything please let us know!!
We will be praying, too-- that all would go smoothly for Leila during surgery and as she recovers. We will also be praying for you and David to have a strong sense of peace throughout it all. Please keep us posted on how it all goes.
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