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.

Sunday, December 13, 2009

Santa Claus

We started out this past week with company.
David's mom and her husband came to visit.
They were here from Sunday until Thursday.

I got my car back on Thurs too.
I'm SO glad. I missed it.
Now we just need Austin's truck home.

Thursday morning our company left and so did Austin.
The high school wrestling team went to Myrtle Beach for a wrestling tournament this weekend.
When we got up on Sat morning to 15* temperatures, he was at the beach wearing short sleeves.
Their hotel had 3 pools, 3 hot tubs and 2 lazy rivers. (Now why did I not go on this trip with them???)
There were 27 teams competing from 6 different states.
Austin placed in the top 6 in his weight class, and Point Pleasant took 1st place overall!!!
It looks like its going to be a great season.

On Sat night we took Leila to see Santa Claus.
She did NOT want anything at all to do with him.
She didn't even want to stand by him.
One thing I thought was really cool though - he knew sign language!
When his 'elf' gave Leila a candy cane, and she signed 'candy' - Santa knew what she was 'saying'.
He asked us if she signed and when we told him, yes, he told us that he had taken 2 courses in sign language.


After church today, we left Leila with a sitter, and David, Darrell and I went with Darrell's youth group to see a Christmas play at the theater in Gallipolis.
They did a fantastic job, and we enjoyed it.
There's going to be a Christmas comedy there next weekend.
I'd like to try to go to that one too, but we'll have to see if we can get another sitter.
That will be Christmas Sunday, so we may have a hard time with that one.

What a busy week coming up we have.
I have something to do and someplace to be every single day this week.

1 comment:

Susan said...

Just catching up as I haven't read blogs in a long time. Can't believe all that has been going on with you guys! I would have liked to go with Austin too - warm weather sounds nice right about now :) I can't believe both cars were out of commission - you guys have had a rough year! We will definitely keep you in our prayers!

December 14, 2009 at 4:27 AM

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