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, May 26, 2014

Spring 2014

Wow! I cannot believe I haven't done an update since Nov.

Let's see ... during the fall semester I went back to teaching (sort of).
I did the paperwork and put myself back on the list to substitute teach. In all honesty, it wasn't actually as bad as I was anticipating. And the money is really good. Never knowing where I was going to be each day and worrying about whether or not someone was going to be here to get Leila to and from school was a constant source of stress for me though.

Dec was Christmas and all the crazy busy wonderful that always goes with that.





Darrell also got a new car (Jeep Liberty) in Dec. His little car just wasn't doing that good. It seemed that every time we turned around, there was something else going wrong with it. With him going away to school in a year, we really wanted him to have something reliable and safe.


Winter always brings winter sports.
For Darrell, it's swimming. This was his 2nd year, and he still loves it.
Since Leila liked cheering so much in the fall, we signed her up for Upward Cheerleading this winter. Upward is a fantastic program. It teaches the basics of the sport and combines it with Bible lessons.
Plus, since it's church and Christian oriented - there's none of the petty, immature drama that sometimes goes on with other kid's sports programs.


Winter was brutal this year. The kids missed so many days of school, that they can't even get them all made up. They've changed the school calendar for next year as a precaution so it won't happen again.


In Jan, I put my 'teaching' back on hold and started babysitting.
I started keeping a 2 month old little boy. His mommy is a teacher at Leila's school, so when she drops him off - she picks her up. And when she picks him up - she drops her off. Very convenient - just not as lucrative.

March was a busy month as well.
David and Darrell both got baptized.
Since our church doesn't have a baptismal, we made plans to use one at a nearby church. However, they forgot to fill it ahead of time. We ended up filling it right beforehand - with a garden hose from outside. The water was COLD! (Definitely memorable though.)


Austin decided to trade his Jeep Wrangler in for something a little sportier. I questioned that after the winter we just had - but he's a grown-up now, and it was his decision.
It is cute though.


March was also Mom's 70th birthday.
We had her a surprise party. We actually pulled off a SURPRISE too! We had over 70 people come. It was great.


With the exception of Easter - we'll call April, 'Darrell's month'.
He was 'tapped' for National Honor Society, National Technical Honor Society and was selected to attend the WV Governor's Honors Academy this summer.
He also decided to give tennis a try this year.
He's never played it before, but thought it would be a good thing to learn, since it's a 'life-long' sport. He DID learn and enjoy the game itself, and if his coach hadn't been such a total jerk - it would have been a great experience.
Oh yeah, and throw prom into the middle of all that too.



Easter started out bright and EARLY this year.
Our Sunday school class cooked the sunrise breakfast for our church.
We had a good turn-out. (I had no idea that many people got up and out that early!)


Now, it's already the end of May. School's almost out - we're into the last few crazy weeks and summer will officially be here.




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