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.

Wednesday, December 12, 2018

Fall 2018

We've done a little traveling this fall.

Rather than have a birthday party for Leila, I decided to take her to New York City.
She's wanted to go for years, but I never thought she was old enough.
This year, I found out there was a bus trip coming up a few weeks after her birthday.
It was an overnight one, rather than a red-eye, so we decided to go.
It was Leila, Mom, Jessica and I.

Even with 2 whole days, it's still never enough time to see and do everything you want.
We tried though.
We took a bus tour around the city.
We went to the 9/11 Memorial (Leila and I had talked extensively about that on Sept 11 this year).
We went up in the One World Observatory (amazing).
We saw a Broadway show (hilarious).
We went to Rockefeller Center and Time Square and China Town - did some shopping in each.
The Christmas Tree wasn't lit up yet at Rockefeller Center, but at least we saw the tree itself.
Leila saw both the Naked Cowboy and Cowgirl in Time Square - She thought they were just too funny.
We didn't make it over to the Statue of Liberty - but we saw it from Battery Park.

It was freezing cold, and we walked about 12 miles in 2 days.

Leila did awesome. We all decided we need to go back again soon - to see the things we missed.

9/11 Memorial


New York Style Pizza


Time Square



Ellen's Stardust Diner



NBC Studio Store


Statue of Liberty


Swarovski Crystal Store at Rockefeller Center



2 weeks after that - Leila and I decided to take a weekend trip to Canada.
David was working up in Waterloo, so we drove up to see him.

Crossing the border was a new experience for Leila. The guard asked her lots of questions to make sure I wasn't kidnapping her.

We went to Niagara Falls - definitely more of a summer destination.

We did the Journey Behind the Falls.

Probably the neatest thing though was eating at the Skylon Tower.
We splurged on diner because it was David's birthday.
It's a revolving restaurant 775 feet above the Falls.
The food was great, the service wonderful - but the view...WOW!
We got to see the Falls lit up and changing colors.


We came home from our trip in time for Leila to have a minor surgery on her ear.
She had a tympanoplasty, and breezed thru.


As much as I love to travel (and Leila seems to have that travel bug as well) - I'm ready to stay home and off the road for just a little while.


No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)