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Local News 
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Marysville family comes together amid devastation in Haiti MARYSVILLE — He's known as "Fireball Brady” to his YouTube fans. It doesn't take long to figure out why.Chris Brady's posts are filled with the single-minded passion of a man on a mission: to somehow get three children he and his wife waited more than two years to adopt safely out of the chaos of post-earthquake Haiti. It consumed the next three weeks of his life, filled with unexpected twists and turns, surprises and setbacks. His post from Jan. 19, one week after the earthquake, describes his frustration: “Hi! Fireball Brady, Haiti Update Number 8. I'm trying to get to Haiti right now. I don't care how I get there…by boat … by plane … I don't care. If anybody out here has a connection with any aviator… or anything … I'm looking to ... Crap! I'll Fed Ex myself… You guys know anybody? Let me know. Have 'em contact me … I'm trying to get to Haiti. I've been told by my congressman's office that they will provide me with documentation that allows me to take the children that I have that are in my name to the embassy to get them processed immediately. I don't know how to get them out after that, but I'm trying. Help me get there. If you guys know anybody, let me know.” If he sounds a little intense, consider the conditions in the hours and days following the deadly earthquake. Chris and his wife, Kirsten, were awaiting word on the three children they hadn't seen since a trip to Haiti a year and a half ago. The fragments of news and descriptions of conditions they heard through adoption networks would keep any parent awake at night. One note begins with an urgent call for prayer, saying that conditions were dire in the orphanage where one of their children was being kept. There was no drinkable water, and they were in need of formula, medicine or intravenous fluids, diesel fuel and charcoal for cooking. Anyone who could help, the note said, would have to deliver cash donations in person or by helicopter. All banks were closed. “I wasn't sleeping. I was following CNN and Fox News. I was on the computer 24/7,” Chris Brady said. Most of Port-au-Prince was devastated. “We were terrified,” Kirsten Brady said. Her husband called public officials, from the governor to congressmen to the U.S. State Department, asking for help. The couple had received messages that their children had survived, but they wanted confirmation. It came one day in an unexpected way, when Fox News correspondent Jonathan Hunt by chance was reporting from the orphanage caring for Annabelle, one of children they were adopting. “Jonathan Hunt was actually carrying our daughter,” Chris Brady said. “That was the first visual sign we had that she was OK.” First, Annabelle Just about everyone who encountered Chris Brady in the days and weeks after the earthquake remembers him, even those who only talked to him briefly on the phone. Among them was Cindy Fischbeck, who, as a lead agent in reservations for Alaska Airlines, talks to dozens of customers every day. Brady called her after Annabelle was flown out of Haiti. Brady spent 36 hours waiting in Florida after getting word that Annabelle was on her way. In the confusion of evacuating children out of Haiti, he wasn't sure exactly when she would arrive or in what city. He flew to Miami, hoping to get a flight to Port-au-Prince. In the quick friendships made through shared, trying experiences, a couple from Iowa, also waiting to be united with two children, invited him to sleep on the floor of their hotel room. Running on caffeine and lack of sleep, but nevertheless smiling and nearly giddy with excitement at being one step closer to holding his daughter, he took time to file a YouTube report: “Thanks to you guys. We know there's been an absolute hailstorm of prayers to God and calls to the State Department. I'm probably on the no fly list after this, which is fine by me.” Brady ended up driving to Orlando to be reunited with Annabelle, who will turn 3 this month. Kirsten flew in. They spent several days with their newest child. One mission accomplished. Annabelle was in his arms. Now he had to concentrate on getting her home. That's when he connected with Fischbeck. “I always like to get a good feel with my customers and was asking about his daughter,” she said. “I like to do whatever I can to help passengers, especially when I know that they're under stress like this.” Because of Annabelle's age, she wasn't allowed to fly on her father's lap. Fischbeck was trying to find an extra seat on a flight back to Seattle. She helped arrange for them to be booked on a 6:25 p.m. nonstop on Tuesday, Jan. 26. She later checked to make sure they had arrived at SeaTac. “It was a happy ending,” Fischbeck said. She knew it was just a beginning. Chris Brady hadn't gotten his sons home yet. Help back home Kirsten, Chris and Annabelle Brady landed near midnight and came home to a house transformed. In their absence, friends had brought cribs, clothes, car seats and bedding, and cleaned their split-level house. “It was like the ‘Extreme Makeover' show,” Kirsten Brady said. In Florida, one family who heard Chris interviewed on TV while waiting for Annabelle to arrive drove to the airport to give him food, a blanket and clothes for the kids and invited him and his wife to stay overnight at their house. It is just another of what Chris calls “the little miracles,” friends and total strangers, like Fischbeck, who stepped up to help. It's hard not to look around their home in a Marysville cul-de-sac, with two children of their own — 10-year-old daughter Madison and 5-year-old son Jem — two cats, and Sadie, a big white dog, and wonder what compelled this couple to do it — to make room for three more children 3,500 miles away and living in the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere. Chris, 35, and Kirsten, 31, both graduates of Grace Academy in Marysville, have been married for 11 years. Chris works as an outside field tech for Verizon. Kirsten home-schools their children and makes homemade children's dolls and toys that she sells online. Kirsten knew she wanted to adopt since she was about 9 years old. It took eight years of marriage, though, before Chris knew it was what he wanted, too. His change of heart came after reading a book of letters written by fathers to their adoptive children. “It hit me right then and there,” he said. “We did want more kids, a bigger family. The best way… to extend our family is to go ahead and adopt.” They first considered adopting a child from Vietnam, where Kirsten's sister had also adopted a child. They were on the waiting list for about a year when they heard that there were children in Haiti waiting for families to adopt them. “It didn't make any sense to me that we were on a list waiting for a child when there's a whole list of children waiting for parents,” Kirsten Brady said. They originally thought of adopting a boy, perhaps a special needs child. They were offered twin boys, Isaiah and Titus. Then they heard about Annabelle and decided they'd adopt her, too. Born to a mother who was HIV-positive, she since has tested negative, free of the virus. The couple say they don't know any of the 10 church members from Idaho, arrested while trying to leave Haiti with 33 Haitian children. People need to follow the rules, the Bradys say, but they sympathize with people trying to help. There's no obvious process for getting children out of the country, Kirsten Brady said. “It's really easy to not hit all the steps.” Communication is difficult, her husband said, and often is out of sync with events. Two hours after Annabelle's plane landed in the U.S., Chris Brady received a call saying the girl had been granted humanitarian parole, one of the last steps before being granted permission to leave Haiti. Back for the boys Chris Brady does what he can to make Annabelle feel at home in a world that has to seem alien. She left a country where the temperature often hovers around 90 degrees. She had never worn socks or a long-sleeved shirt. She simply didn't need them. So he turned up the heat in their home and lit a stack of wood in the fireplace. Less than 24 hours after arriving back home from Florida with Annabelle, there was another piece of good news from Haiti. The twin 3-year-old boys they were adopting had been moved to Port-Au-Prince, bringing them one step closer to being approved for departure. “It's a waiting game right now,” Chris Brady said at the time. “I'm not very patient.” Two days later, on Friday, Jan. 29, Emily Halnon, a spokeswoman for U.S. Rep. Rick Larsen, said that the boys would probably be on a plane to the U.S. within days — two of seven adopted Haitian children coming to families in northwest Washington. By the evening of Jan. 30, Chris Brady was on his third cross-country flight to Miami, this time to pick up the boys, Titus and Isaiah. Four days later, Chris and Kirsten Brady sat in the living room, their family at home and together at last. An iPhone program, used by international response teams, helps the couple translate simple words or phrases from Haitian French Creole into English. The boys refer to their parents as Mamma and Papa Blanc (literally Momma and Papa White), terms they probably were taught in the orphanage to prepare them for their new homeland. As a corner of their house is filled with noises and squeals of children playing, Sadie, the family dog, looks into the room through a sliding glass door at the sudden change in the household. Kirsten Brady is bemused by the commotion, calling out for Annabelle's whereabouts as Isaiah scrambles up into her lap with a thump. “It's definitely been a little nuts around here,” she said. It's not just the addition of three children, but children who have been through a traumatic experience and don't speak English. “Slowly but surely we're working through it and learning to communicate,” she said. The children sometimes wake up at night screaming from nightmares, the emotional imprint of living through a magnitude 7.0 earthquake. The couple rush to soothe them. “They're OK as soon as we say it's OK, we're here,” Kirsten Brady said. Even now there are steps left to finish in the adoption process. Officially they are now the children's sponsors. They must then be approved as their foster parents before finally becoming their legal guardians. Despite his initial frustrations, Chris Brady said, State Department employees did work hard to help them, including one 3 a.m. call to update them. And staff from Larsen's office kept checking and rechecking with other government agencies and apprising them of when their children might arrive. The couple say that the experience, beginning with their first trip to Haiti in July 2008 to meet their prospective children, has forever changed them. They were exposed to a country full of contradictions, people living in nearly indescribable poverty yet having admirable resilience. They say they have renewed appreciation for things as commonplace as having fresh, clean water at the turn of a tap and working flush toilets — for many Haitians, luxuries of life that they are denied. They worry that public attention is fading from Haiti's ongoing depravation. They hope in part that people will see their experience as a reminder Haiti's ongoing need for support. They balance that message with the joy that comes each new day with their children. One recent afternoon, Chris Brady described a new game of peek-a-boo that he plays with Annabelle. “Is that Annabelle?” he asked as he walked into her room. “If you walk in, she puts her head down and closes her eyes,” he explained. But as he closed the door, he could see her lift her head, awake and alert again. “It's hilarious,” he said. “I'm the happiest man in the world. I say that unabashedly.” Read the blog Read Chris Brady's blog at http://fireballbrady.blogspot.com. Donate miles Alaska Airlines and Horizon Air have established a program to donate frequent-flier miles to charitable groups involved in Haiti relief efforts. Up to 5 million miles donated to the Charity Miles program will be matched by the airline until Feb. 15. Go to http://tinyurl.com/AlaskaHaiti. Sharon Salyer: 425-339-3486 or salyer@heraldnet.com |
Photo Gallery: Haitian Adoption
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COMMENTS
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I agree with Brandon and Debi. Before you condemn someone for LOVING a child or children enough to adopt them, look at how small your world is. Do you read? Do you travel? Do you understand that the world does not revolve around Washinton State? There is a huge world out there waiting to be explored, and when you open your mind to learning about other cultures, you will find that there are far fewer differences than similarities between various ethnic groups. If color is the only difference, then I am assuming you do not tan... If hair texture is your issue, I guess you do not perm or curl yours... If it is the full lips, you probably are no fan of Lisa Rinne or Angelina Jolle either. You see, physical features are an exterior covering for the soul. The inner heart is where it all counts, and I perceive yours to be dark and filled with self-loathing. When you are dissatisfied with your own life, you tend to try to pull others down to your insignificant level. But, I will keep you in my prayers, because only a miracle will change your hateful attitude.
JEANNE BROOKS | Feb 10, 2010 3:47 pm | 0 replies | Request removal
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How sad it is that some people cannot see past the color of a childs skin. These are children, innocent children, who through no fault of their own, have found themselved abandoned, orphaned and alone. I commend this family for opening their hearts and their lives to these children, and their commitment to get them safely home, no matter the cost. For those of you who are posting such negative messages, I feel sorry pity for you. It must be sad to be you.... locked up in your white world of hate.
cherl R | Feb 8, 2010 11:18 am | 0 replies | Request removal
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It boggles my mind why there are so many whites wanting to adopt these hatians, what are they trying to prove?? I almost feel pity for them(not really) for in the not too distant future,their going to acknowlege their dreadful mistake. And isn't it absolutely amazing how their drive to help children never meant that much when it came to WHITE children here in the states or abroad?
alphakenny1up | Feb 7, 2010 4:19 am | 3 replies | Request removal
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We'll probably have to pay for them. When their in prison.
Linda Booth | Feb 07, 2010 9:02 am | Request removal
Sorry, but the only fools i see are the two who have posted negative comments.
Do you realize how racist you sound?
Also, the appropriate use of the English language would be appreciated. Linda, you posted "We'll probably have to pay for them. When their in prison."
The correct term would be "When they are in prison." or "When they're in prison."
Ignorance is no excuse for your kind of stupidity.
To the Brady Family! CONGRATS! You have a beautiful family there! (notice the correct form of the word there)
Brandon Scofield | Feb 07, 2010 9:30 am | Request removal
Wow! The earth is really just one big country and all of mankind it's citizens. We are all in this together! All children need love and deserve a family, not just specifically colored ones or ones born in certain countries! There really is no excuse for this type of ignorance in this day and age. And let me share some FACTS with you. The United States foster system is over filled with multi-racial children that if were only to be placed with same-color parents would never find a home because there aren't enough of those foster homes to go around. Thanks to Bill Clinton in 1994 passing the MEPA Act to protect all children, not just some, foster kids of any color can be placed with any color family.
The only people who end up in prison are uneducated, so if that follows suit for you... you will probably be headed that way soon because you are clearly ignorant.
Children who are starving or have no parents deserve better, no matter where they were born.
Debbie Sodl | Feb 07, 2010 6:53 pm | Request removal
Thank you, Sharon, for another beautiful and uplifting article. Much appreciated... Tom
Thomas Bolling | Feb 7, 2010 12:52 pm | 0 replies | Request removal
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