Mary Kaye and Michael Miller couldn`t imagine a better Christmas present than the arrival of their son, David, on Dec. 24, 1983.
At 8:30 p.m., Michael remembered, the jet from Bogota, Colombia, touched down at Logan International Airport in Boston, and the couple first glimpsed their 3 1/2-month-old baby. It was a dream come true to have a child of their own after trying unsuccessfully to conceive for four years.
”We were very lucky. We waited only six months instead of a year as we had been told,” Michael said.
David, now 5, eagerly picked up the story from there with his well-worn book of snapshots. He showed photos of ”the jet, Mommy and Daddy at the airport, Grandma and Grandpa . . . and the judge. He said this is my family forever.”
The Miller family grew again, just 10 days after moving to Naperville from Michigan in July, 1987. Mary Kaye and her mother flew to Santiago, Chile, to bring back 14-month-old Maria Elena, quickly shortened to Lena by her big brother.
Mary Kaye said that she enjoyed the trip to Chile because she visited Lena`s foster family and saw the differences in child-rearing practices.
”When we got Lena at 14 months, she couldn`t walk yet because she was either carried or in a walker. All (the foster family) thought I was crazy to be down on the floor playing with the children.
”And babies in Chile are very used to being held by everyone. They`ll go to anybody,” Mary Kaye said. ”In a store, the saleswoman considers it part of her job to take your baby for you while you shop.”
The only thing David said that he remembers about new sister`s arrival was that ”she throwed up all over Mommy`s lap.”
”David`s reaction to having a new sister was the same as any kid`s,”
said Michael, 40, vice president of SK Hand Tool Co. in Chicago. ”Typically, the new baby is small and not threatening. But Lena was moving around a lot and getting into his toys.”
Mary Kaye, 35, a part-time cosmetics consultant, said that she and her husband consider their children ”American through and through, but we do want them to know something about their country of origin.”
