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.

Monday, September 14, 2009

Memories and More

Oh what an emotional week this is. What memories it brings.
You see - one year ago, we were in China on the most amazing trip of a lifetime.
Every day I find myself thinking - one year ago, we were.....
One year ago yesterday, we were at the Summer Palace, Tiannamen Square and the Forbidden City.

Summer Palace

Forbidden City
One year ago today, we were walking on the Great Wall of China. What a surreal experience. I still to this day, find it hard to believe that one.



One year ago tomorrow, we boarded a Chinese airplane and flew from Beijing to Guanghzou.
We were going to pick up our baby girl.
One year ago......what a year it's been.
And yet, it's flown by. Wow, it seems like just yesterday.


On another note, we went to MD this weekend.
On Fri evening, we had visitation at the funeral home. Leila turned into quite the social butterfly. Those of you that actually 'know' her, may find that hard to believe, but really - she did. She ran all over the place. Now, she still didn't want anyone to hold her (she didn't transform that much) - actually she didn't even want us to hold her. She was free! She ran around and visited with everyone all evening.
There was another visitation(?) going on in another room at funeral home at the same time. She even visited those people! I had to go and get her out of there - more than once. I told some of the ladies in there that apparantly, she was tired of our people and wanted to see theirs. They told me that they were getting bored with theirs too, and to let her stay! I said, well, maybe so, but I'm thinking that maybe it's just not appropriate!
She was NOT so good on Sat however, but that's another story.
I guess that 2 days in a row is just too much to expect.

Although Darrell missed his track meet this week, he shaved over 2 minutes off his time last week. Pretty impressive I think.
They also had a run-a-thon today to raise money for warm-up suits. He ran 6.5 miles in an hour. I was quite impressed with that one. I couldn't run that in a day.

And on yet another note - we woke up this morning to find a dead deer in the back yard. We're thinking that since an early bow season opened today, perhaps someone shot it, and it jumped our fence to die in our yard. That left us the task of getting rid of it. But not before the dogs found it. They had a baths yesterday, but ended up getting another one today.
And, I found a lizard downstairs today! Now, you must understand, that I have this insane, complete, total irrational fear of lizards. Sort of like some people (won't mention names) that are afraid of little innocent mice. Anyway, the cat had already found it and had it mostly dead. I did manage to finish it off - a task for which I am quite proud of myself for. I could not, however, bring myself to pick it up and dispose of it. I ended up shutting the door and leaving it until Austin got home.
Now my fear is not only how and when it got in, but more importantly - are or will there be more???
I'm really, really not loving the whole wildlife thing right now.
My big brave hunter:





1 comment:

Kimberly said...

Your last comment made me laugh-- I am always right there with ya on the wildlife thing when it comes to dead deer and lizards. YUCK.

September 14, 2009 at 10:20 PM

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