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.

Tuesday, January 12, 2016

Christmas 2015

I love Christmas season.
Oddly enough, it didn't seem as busy and hectic this year as normal.
Maybe because Leila was the only one at home, and she didn't have any extracurricular activities going on at the time.
That's not to say I had all my Christmas stuff done early - I didn't.
Leila has had more doctor appointments lately than normal, and I've been trying to work as much as possible lately.
I didn't even start Christmas baking until the week of Christmas - but it all got done, just like it always does.

Just a few pictures from the season.

Putting up the tree

Santa

School Program

Church Program

Christmas Sunday

Cookies for Santa

Christmas Morning


Once Christmas was over, it was time to clean up and get ready for our annual New Year's Eve Party.
We love our group that gets together every year to send out the old and welcome in the new with games, fun, friendship and of course, food.

Leila and I were ready for the party in our new matching shirts, but everyone needed a nap the next day - even Mousey.


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Friday, January 1, 2016

Fall 2015

Fall sped by with our usual activities.

Darrell settled in at Marshall and is loving college life.
He's taking classes, and working part-time.
He got a job as a life guard at the rec center on campus. It works out great for him because the rec center is right next door to his dorm.
He also joined a fraternity. He assures me it's more of an 'academic' one, rather than a 'party' one though - Kappa Alpha.
He's such a social person, I knew it was only a matter of time.


Leila's doing well as a big 2nd grader.

Leila choose not to do ballet this year - which makes me sad, because I love to watch her in it and I think she's very good.
I also know that I can't make her do something like that if her heart isn't in it.
I hope she'll miss it and want to go back next year - but so far, she doesn't.

She cheered again this year. She does love that.
This was her 3rd year cheering.
I'm glad she's found something that she does really like, but I must say that I'm not much of a personal fan of 'outdoor sports', and some of those football games got pretty cold.
Leila was fine - but I thought I was going to freeze.


In Oct, we took a weekend trip to Amish Country with some friends.
I've been wanting to go for quite some time, but we just haven't been able to work it out until now.
David didn't realize just how much is there to do and see.
Now he's much more willing to go back again.
We went to a carving museum that was absolutely amazing, and an Amish comedy theater - plus we had some great food.



The end of the month brought Halloween, of course, and both Darrell (19) and Leila's (8) birthdays.


For Leila's birthday, I let her miss school.
We went to breakfast with 'the girls' and then spent the day - just her and I, shopping at the mall.

We didn't get to stay ALL day though, because we had to get home and get ready for Trick-or-Treat that night.

Darrell didn't come home for his actual birthday.
He had just been home the weekend before to go to Amish Country with us, so he decided to stay in Huntington.
The lure of a home Marshall football game AND Halloween night was just great to miss in comparison to spending the weekend with us.

We went to the traveling version of 'The Price is Right' in Nov.
TPIR is one of David's favorite shows, and Leila used to say that she wanted to be a Price is Right model when she grows up - so when I saw tickets going on sale, I knew we had to go.
It was a fun night out, and I'm glad we went - although it would have been so much better had we gotten on stage and won something.


We rounded out Nov with Thanksgiving and a full house.


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