The couple's first child, Margo Lynn (known as Lynn) was born in 1935 after a difficult childbirth, and Lenore became a stay-at-home mother. A second daughter, Jane, followed in 1938. In 1939, the family moved to the Detroit, Michigan, area when George took a job with the Automobile Manufacturers Association. They rented a house in Grosse Pointe, Michigan, for two years, then bought one in the Palmer Woods section of Detroit. The couple's first son, George Scott (known as G. Scott), was born in 1941. The couple longed for another child, but doctors told them that Lenore probably could not become pregnant again and might not survive if she did. By 1946, they had begun the process of adopting a war orphan living in Switzerland. However, Lenore became pregnant, and after a difficult pregnancy – lying still on her back for a month in a hospital during one stretch – and delivery, Willard Mitt (known as Mitt) was born in 1947. After the birth she required a hysterectomy. Lenore would subsequently refer to Mitt as her miracle baby.