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.

Friday, July 16, 2010

Camp Electric

Both boys went to camp last week.
Not scout camp, like they've done in the past. Not another sports camp.
A music / praise & worship camp.
We found out about it last year from an 'adoption' friend whose son has been before.

It's held in Nashville, TN and is called "Camp Electric".
Contemporary Christian artists come to the camp.
Their band members teach music classes to the kids.
Then they put on concerts for them at night.
(Toby Mac runs it.)

Austin went for guitar. Darrell went for keyboard.
Honestly, we were a little worried about Darrell though. (He hasn't had a whole lot of experience yet.)
They didn't know anyone going (except each other). And they weren't rooming together anyway.

They both absolutely loved it!!!
We dropped them off on Sun afternoon, and by Sun evening - Darrell had already texted us and asked if he could come back next year.

Turns out - the emphasis wasn't as much on the music classes as it was on the praise and worship part.
They got to see around 2 concerts a day.
They saw Pillar, Disciple, of course Toby Mac and several others too.
And it wasn't like they were in huge concert halls with thousands of people either. They were never more than probably 10 yards from the stage. Sometimes they were even right up against it.

I would love to post some pictures of it, but I don't have much.
Darrell didn't take a whole lot, and Austin took mostly video.

And yes - we did do the pre-registration for next year too.

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