'The Brown Bunch'
CENTER TWP — For Lisa Brown, this Mother's Day is going to be a bigger celebration than normal.
Nearly a year ago, Brown and her husband, Terry, already the parents of three boys and three girls, brought two more children into their family when they adopted young boys with Down syndrome from the Ukraine.
Bobby, 4, and Joey, 2, now complete the self-named “Brown Bunch,” which also is comprised of Beatrice, 13, Sam, 11, Paris, 9, twins Guinness and Delaney, 8, and Grayden, 5.
However, the adoptions were anything but normal.
Bringing Bobby and Joey into their family was literally a life-saving endeavor that required time, money, faith and, of course, a lot of compassion.
Because of the conditions and procedures in some countries, children with disabilities are institutionalized at a young age. Their quality of life and life expectancy can suffer drastically as a result.
The Browns' adoption mission started nearly two years ago, but their journey began long before that.
Lisa Brown, 46, teaches fourth graders in the Quaker Valley School District and has a background in special education.
Terry Brown, 45, co-owns two human service-related businesses: Kids Count, which has two offices in Butler County, and Family Psychological Services, which has four offices, one each in Butler, Armstrong, Clarion and Indiana counties.
However, their passion for caring for those with disabilities extended past their professional lives when their eldest son, Sam, was born with Down syndrome and again when one of their twins, Guinness, was born with biliary atresia. The rare disorder affects the bile ducts in the liver and requires a procedure during infancy to ensure a chance of survival.
Still, Guinness needed a liver transplant by age 2, but he is now a healthy, active 8-year-old who only has to take one pill a day.Those life lessons, and the Browns' perseverance through them, contributed to their acceptance to the idea of helping more children.Neither Lisa, nor Terry comes from a large family. Terry has a brother, and Lisa has a brother and a sister. However, the high school sweethearts who are originally from Fayette County had planned to have a large family.Still, they did not plan to have such a large family in such a short time, at one point raising five children under the age of 5 — all while getting a late start. Lisa was 34 when their eldest child, Beatrice, was born.But the chance to contribute to a worldwide cause and to save lives led them to add to their already robust family.About two years ago, the Browns learned about Reese's Rainbow, an international program that promotes the adoption of children with Down syndrome, and Lisa soon started to seek more information.She felt called to get involved and found herself constantly scanning the list of children in need of adoption on the organization's website.“I would just look at it every night and cry and cry,” she said. “You almost become obsessed with it.”Next, two random occurrences helped nudge them forward with their adoption plans.The first was when the parents of one of their daughter's soccer teammates shared a book with them.The book, “The Tales of the Beedle and the Bard” by famed “Harry Potter” series author J.K. Rowling, raised awareness about the institutionalization of children with disabilities in Europe. Through the auction of seven limited edition copies, as well as the proceeds from regular book sales, Rowling raised millions of dollars for the Children's High Level Group, a nonprofit organization Rowling chairs and which is now known as Lumos.The second sign was when Terry met a man who shared his positive story about adopting children through Reese's Rainbow.Terry said knowing those children would essentially be “thrown away” by society and would suffer and die young as a result while he had the means to help, gave him the encouragement he needed to press forward.The Browns then started the six-month process to complete the adoption paperwork only to have to start over again when their first submission was lost.When the paperwork was finally approved, they traveled to the Ukraine, where they spent five weeks “winging it” and meeting the children they had selected through Reese's Rainbow.Every day, from May 23 to June 30, they visited the orphanage in which Bobby and Joey were housed and attend numerous court hearings. Throughout the process, they had limited access to a translator.“It was harder to adopt than it was for me to start my own business,” Terry said.After the five weeks were up, the Browns returned to the United States.Lisa then had to go back for nine days to take custody of the boys as well as to locate their records and to visit their birth region near the city of Lugansk in southeastern Ukraine.Lisa said that second trip was the only time a cloud of doubt entered her mind.After picking up the boys, she endured a 17-hour train ride, battling both the language barrier and her new sons' illness due to motion sickness. And on her way there, she had a brush with death when an engine on one of her flights failed, leading to an emergency landing.But now with the family together and approaching Bobby's and Joey's “adoption day” on June 19, the Browns say the dynamic has been natural from the first month.“It seems like they've always been part of the family,” Lisa said.Other than caring for babies again, the Browns said adding to their family has not presented any major challenges.“It's as chaotic as it used to be,” Lisa joked.However, meal and transportation planning naturally become a little more difficult, they said.Each of the children participates in activities, spanning athletics, music lessons and Girl Scouts.“We have not limited ourselves because of the babies,” Lisa said. “We just go.”
The Browns said their other children have greatly helped with the transition, gladly accepting their new brothers, taking on more responsibilities and gaining an understanding of developmental disabilities. To the rest of the children, Sam, Bobby and Joey are just their brothers, Lisa said.“I think they get what's important in life,” she said about learning to care for others.Terry added the supportive environment also has helped their children with Down syndrome because they are constantly stimulated, helping them to expand their capabilities. Plus, he said, Sam now has two brothers he can spend the rest of his life with.Three years ago, the Browns built and moved into their current house, which is much larger than the 1,100-square-foot home they lived in as a family of eight. However, Lisa said even though her children have the choice of having their own rooms, they still choose to stay together.“We've been lucky,” Terry said about feeling blessed to have the means to care for eight children. “We've had nothing, and I mean nothing.”“Though there's more clothes and more laundry … there's always more people to talk to, more laughter,” Lisa added.As for any special Mother's Day plans, Terry joked Lisa will get a much-needed break that will last all of about five hours.“We'll stay here, and Lisa gets to go shopping,” he said.
