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.

Sunday, January 5, 2020

Christmas 2019

Christmas is always so very busy and rushed,
and then - it's over (so sad).
This year was no exception.

Our church has been going thru some changes the last few months.
We've had some problems, but we're on our way back now.
We had a 'Christmas Swag' class.

The kids put on a Christmas Play - for the first time in several years.


Leila had a speaking part in her last Christmas concert at Roosevelt.
After practicing for weeks, she ended up missing it.
The original date had to be rescheduled
due to rain/high water/flooding.
Unfortunately, the make-up date conflicted with a show that we were planning to attend.
I had gotten tickets for 'Cirque Dreams Holidaze'
for my birthday back in August.
There was no way I was going to give that up.
(I've been wanting to see a Cirque de Soleil show for years - and it was well worth the wait.)
The show was amazing.
I had originally purchased 3 tickets - David, Leila and me.
David ended up having surgery (bowel resection) 2 days prior to the show, and wasn't able to go with us.
Thankfully, Mom took his ticket and went with us.

He had been putting off this surgery for awhile, and finally decided to just get it over with.
Good thing too - because the surgeon said it was well past due.
It was a pretty serious surgery (took 5.5 hours).
He did great though.
He has recovered way faster and way better than we had anticipated.

Second year now, we decided to play some games on Christmas Eve.
Some went great (sock exchange),
others not so good (saran wrap ball).
These games are a new 'tradition', so it's trial and error for now.

And with new 'traditions' - we changed our Christmas morning routine a little this year too.
New baby - new schedule.
Instead of all the kids coming here first thing for presents - we went to Austin and Casey's.
We 'watched' Caleb do the Santa thing, had breakfast,
and then came back here and continued on.

A few pics from the Christmas season.

Putting up the Tree


Gallipolis in Lights


Christmas Sunday



Christmas Eve




Christmas morning




No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)