Published: November 26, 2006 11:09 am      

Adoption blessing

Born worlds apart, little sister a ‘big fan’ of brother

KEYSER, W.Va. — Although brother and sister Pierce and Saige Miller were born worlds apart, it is obvious they adore each other as they play together in the living room of their Airport Addition home.

Saige, 2, climbs into her brother’s lap, stretching out flat on her back to invite “big brother” to tickle her belly. Pierce, 11, is quick to oblige, soliciting a big grin and a giggle from his little sister.

Proud parents Chance and Kim Miller watch happily as they reflect on the intercontinental process that brought their family together about a year and a half ago.

“I always wanted a child of my own, but I also wanted to adopt one,” Kim said, adding that son Pierce had his own feelings about the proposition.

“He didn’t want to be an only child,” Kim said.

“So we went to church one Sunday and the preacher was talking about how to serve God. I felt perhaps adopting a child was how I needed to serve him,” she said. “He has lots of children who need homes.”

The Millers began exploring the idea of adoption by researching the topic on the Internet. Kim said they thought about adopting a Chinese child because of the many things they had heard about how female babies are treated in that country.

“With the one-child-per-family rule, they all want sons,” she said, noting that families who have female babies often abandon them and try again for the coveted male child.

That was apparently the case with Saige.

“She was left at a bus station,” Chance said. “She was only about 5 days old.”

Saige was one of the lucky ones. She was only in an orphanage for four or five weeks before being taken in by a foster family.

The Millers first met their new daughter when they traveled with 18 other families to China to pick her up.

“We were there 16 days. We had to do a lot of paperwork, but in the meantime, we were able to spend time with her and get to know her,” Kim said.

“When we got her, she didn’t want anything to do with me,” Kim said. “Chance was the only person she’d allow to hold her.”

Authorities with the adoption agency suggested the toddler’s hesitancy might have been caused by previous experience.

“She was with a foster family and lost them. And she’d lost her mother before that. They said she was probably just putting up her guard,” Kim said.

“By the time we left China, she was coming to me and accepting me, too.

“That was probably the only real adjustment period we had,” she said, calling Saige’s integration into the family “seamless.”

The youngster was already quite familiar with many of the things that American children hold dear.

“When we first saw a picture of her, she was wearing Spongebob footies on her feet. We all like Spongebob,” Kim said, laughing. “She’s also a big Dora the Explorer fan.

“She loves for me to read her books to her.”

Dora and Spongebob are not Saige’s only heroes, however.

“She’s a big fan of his,” Chance said, pointing to son Pierce.

“If he’s playing with his Legos or something in his room, she’s content just to sit and watch him,” Kim added.

“We’re just so thankful that everything went as easily as it did,” Kim said. “Every day, Chance and I look at each other and say, ‘How can this be?’

“But I feel God wanted us to adopt, and we did it, and we’ve just been blessed,” she said.

“People say how lucky she is to have us, but we’re the ones who are truly blessed by her.”

Liz Beavers can be reached at lbeavers@times-news.com.