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.

Friday, February 12, 2021

Fall 2020

 Labor Day seems to signify the end of summer, and this year - life started picking back up once September came.

We started the month with a 4-wheeler / side-by-side trip to Ritchie County.





School finally started - partly.  

We're on what they called 'blended learning'.  

They go to school 2 days a week, and do remote learning the other 3.  

I know some kids / parents don't like it - but we most definitely do.

Leila has the best grades now that she's ever had.

And Charlie loves having her home for school.

She's in Jr High now - 7th grade.

She made both the Varsity Cheer Team and the Jr Varsity Volleyball Team.

I'm glad school is only part-time, otherwise - I'm not sure she would have time to stay caught up with everything.




Sept 16 was our 12th Gotcha Day!  
It surely does not seem like it's been that long.
We had our annual Chinese Gotcha Day dinner.  
I am so grateful that ALL of our kids take the time to do this with us.


We're really trying to use the side-by-side as much as possible to justify having it.
We met some friends from DC (John and Angie Phelps) at the Hatfield & McCoy trails for a weekend of riding.
We rented 2 cute little cabins beside each other, rode all day and visited in the evenings.




The end of October - another set of birthdays.

Leila turned 13.
She had a birthday party with some of her volleyball friends at a trampoline place in Charleston.
Surprisingly, they all liked the dodge ball part better than any of the trampoline and flipping or climbing parts.

Darrell turned 24 a few days later on Halloween. 
It wasn't actually supposed to be a 'birthday party', 
but it worked out that way because we ended up having a 'Craig Cousins Party' at Scott and Wendy's house that night. 
Suffice it to say - we all had fun.






Caleb's 1st Trick or Treat turned out to be the year that Leila decided she was too old to go trick or treating.  
He was a pretty cute little lion though.


Caleb turned a year old on Nov 16. 

I don't know, maybe I'm prejudice - but he seems pretty advanced for his age.

He's been walking since August.  

I can see both Austin and Casey in him.  




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