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, March 3, 2011

What a Weekend!

Last weekend was an extremely busy one.

On Thurs, Leila moved up to the 'big girl' class at gymnastics.
That means that I no longer go out on the floor with her.
She goes without me.
AND she did good! (Much better than I anticipated.)
Those that know her, must realize what an accomplishment this is.
If her coaches weren't so good - I doubt this transistion would be going this well.

Austin had WV State Wrestling Tournament Thurs-Sat.
He did good, but he did not place.
He wrestled with strep throat and an ear infection.
He lost 6 lbs last week, so he was giving up 8 lbs just to wrestle his class.
He did better than I expected with the way he felt (crappy), but not as good as I would have liked.
It was his very last wrestling tournament ever (after 12 long years).
I wanted him to go out with a bang, rather than a fizzle.
I know that as good as he did do - he would have placed if he hadn't been sick.
I'm still proud of him for what he did do though.
AND, the team got 1st place!
Point Pleasant is the WV State Champs - 2 yrs now in a row.


On Sun, we took Leila to see 'Disney on Ice - Princess Wishes'.
David was afraid she was too young for a show like this, but I was determined to take her anyway.
She loved it. She was mesmerized the entire first part.
I'm on the email list from Ticketmaster, so we have the opportunity to buy tickets for things early.
By doing that, we had great seats. Close to the middle and only 4 rows back.
It was a fantastic show.
I do think it's criminal what they charge for things though - not the ticket prices, but the stuff inside.
(You shouldn't have to take out a loan to go to a show like that.)
There are times I wish Leila had a sibling closer to her age, but at something like that - I'm glad she doesn't.
We splurged and bought her a t-shirt, tiara, and light-up thingy.
But we drew the line at the food.
I had wanted to buy her cotton candy (she's never had any).
A bag of cotton candy was $12 and snowcones were $16! That's ridiculous.
She can try cotton candy at the fair this summer.
David's just not sure who liked the show the most - Leila or Lois?


And Darrell started track on Mon.
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