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, January 3, 2024

Summer 2022

 Aug 2022 - We took a real family vacation with just the 3 of us. 

We went to Miami for a week.  

Certainly  not David's 1st destination choice, but he did pretty good with it.  


We followed our family tradition of each person getting to choose an activity.

We did a food tour in Little Havana, which was amazing.  Definitely want to do more of these.  

 

 

We drove down the Overseas Highway to Key West.  Leila and I had been there, but David had not.

 

 

We went deep sea fishing (David's choice).  I enjoyed it more than anticipated, and our catch tasted amazing!

 

 

We had a few other excursions - Miami Seaqarium (definitely smaller than Sea World - but a very nice and enjoyable day), an airboat ride (not worth it), Hop On Hop Off bus tour (terrible) and our surprise, cheap discovery - Robbie's on Islamorada where we fed tarpon while fighting off the pelicans.  


 
 While it's hard to take the time and to find someplace that we all want to go - it is surely something we
need to make more of an effort to do - before Leila grows up completely.
 
 
Leila started high school (9th grade) in August, and with that came her 1st year playing high school volleyball.
 
Austin took us all to Kings Island the end of August for Toyota's annual Family Day, and as my birthday present.  
It was Kings Island's 50th anniversary, so the firework show that night also featured lasers and lots of extra stuff.
Caleb even rode everything he was big enough to ride.  
If summer has to end - it was a good way to wrap it up. 





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