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.

Thursday, April 1, 2010

Easter Eggs

We went to school last weekend to have breakfast with the Easter Bunny and to go on an Easter egg hunt.
Other than being a little cool, the weather cooperated nicely.
Well - the Easter Bunny, just wasn't happening.
He must just be too scary.
3-4 feet was as close as we could get to him for a picture.

Now the egg hunt, that was a different story.
We've been practicing hiding and finding eggs here at the house, so Leila was more than ready for that.
I really liked the way they had it all set up too.
It was sectioned off by age groups, of course. (Leila was in the 3 and under.)
But what I thought was so great, was that they told the kids to go and find 10 eggs and then come back.
All around us, I could hear parents counting.
And then, I'd hear - 'you've got your 10, you're done for now, let's go back'.
After they made sure all the kids had gotten at least 10 eggs, then they let them go back to get the rest.
I liked that they made sure no one got left out.


We have our egg hunt at church tomorrow evening.
We're looking SO forward to that one too.

We colored eggs here at the house last night.

Leila LOVED it.

At one point, she got just a little wild with dipping an egg and the dye splashed up, so she had bright pink splatters all over her face the rest of the night.
We did a dozen eggs, and she was so proud of them.

I put them in her basket, and put it on the fireplace hearth.
When I got up this morning .... all but 2 eggs were gone!
There were only a few remnants of a shell left.
The blasted dog ate them!!!
I had to go buy more eggs today, because all of our eggs are 'homemade' (you know, brown eggs from my aunt's chickens).
And we did it again tonight.

Darrell missed it tonight though.
He's at a track meet.
He texted me, and he did okay, but not great in the mile and the 800.
But his relay team got 2nd place!

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