Courtesy The Asheville Citizen-Times

(March 28, 2011) So you think you've had a hectic couple of weeks, feeling like you've been going here and there, running ragged?

Try climbing into Brendan Harrington's suitcase.

A radio broadcaster for the UNC Asheville basketball team and an STAA client, Harrington and his wife Amy are still recovering from an incredible two-week journey filled with joy in both his personal and professional life.

You want to talk madness in March?

Just reading the numbers makes your butt hurt — hard to believe totals like 17,659 miles in 16 days, 51 hours of travel by airplane, car, taxi and bus.

Nine flights, three continents and five states plus D.C., bouncing around like a rock ‘n' roll tour with an ADD travel agent.

And for what?

Achieving two long-held dreams, one much more important than the other, but both satisfying, exhausting and worth every moment of jet lag, security searches and travel delays.

The Asheville couple is in the process of adopting a beautiful 7-month old girl in Ethiopia, and their initial trip to
Africa to meet their daughter was scheduled for the day after the Big South Conference Tournament.

With the semifinals and finals of the tournament in Conway, S.C. (five-hour plus drive from Asheville), Harrington made the drive down and back twice in three days, March 3-5.

Turns out those 18-19 hours in the car back and forth to the beach and on to Charlotte would soon feel as easy as a jaunt down to the corner store for a six-pack.

On to Africa

After covering the Bulldogs' victory in the BSC tournament title game on March 5 that secured an invite to the NCAA tournament, the Harringtons drove to Charlotte to catch a flight to Washington and then on to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, which covered 13 hours and 7,182 miles.

Taking care of legal issues involving the adoption preceded seeing and holding their daughter for the first time.

Her name is Tadila and she has a precious, round face; Macy will be her first name when she comes to live with the Harringtons.

She lives in a foster care center in Addis Ababa, and the time frame for her arrival to Asheville is uncertain.

“Meeting her was awesome,” said Amy, 36, an obstetrician/gynecologist.

“You talk to her and she is pumping her legs around, just kicking with joy. She's engaging, she looks at you, she's so sweet. I just want to bring her home.”

“She's an incredibly happy baby; she didn't cry the whole time we were there,” Harrington said.

Love of the game

Harrington, 32, is a social studies teacher at SILSA, a specialized high school located on the campus of Asheville High.

But a passion is sports broadcasting, and even finding out about the gender and details of his child is basketball-related.

“I was waiting outside (North Carolina basketball coach) Roy Williams' office waiting to interview him in November (when Asheville played the Tar Heels in Chapel Hill) when I got a call from Amy and found out she was a 3-month old girl,” said Harrington, who has worked with Asheville basketball for six seasons.

“I really enjoy doing the games, obviously, and it was a dream to call a game in the NCAA tournament, to go through all of this to get there,” Harrington said. “I've been following college basketball since I was 7.”

Back home, eventually

After a week in Ethiopia, the Harringtons returned to the U.S., with a European stop for fuel.

“My first trip to (Rome) and I sit in the plane for an hour,” said Harrington. “The selection show (March 13) happened while we were in the air, they didn't have Internet on the plane and our cell phones were dead, so when we landed (in D.C.) Monday morning (March 14) I raced to get a newspaper to see where I was going.

“I was hoping it wasn't Dayton so I would have some time to breathe.”

A quick glance in a newspaper showed the Bulldogs were indeed in Dayton, the first game on Tuesday night. “I said a word I shouldn't have said and then started looking for a flight to Dayton,” Harrington said.

“There was a little bit of panic that I couldn't do all that and get to Dayton, but it all worked out.”

A suit and radio equipment left at the home of a friend in Charlotte prior to the flight to Ethiopia had to be retrieved, so Harrington flew to Charlotte and then on to Dayton, arriving about 11:30 p.m. Monday, while Amy returned to Asheville that same night.

Asheville's 81-77 win over Arkansas-Little Rock on Tuesday night put Harrington into what had become the familiar upright position, flying with the team to Washington for a Thursday game vs. Pittsburgh.

Following the Bulldogs' 74-51 loss, he flew back to Asheville with the team last Friday, and slept in his bed for the first time in 14 days.

Back home together last Saturday, the Harringtons were still jet-lagged and sleep deprived but convinced all the travel and effort was worthwhile.

“Amy is also a big basketball fan, so she understands this,” said Harrington. “And my principal Greg Townsend has been great working with me. With the adoption and basketball, I missed two weeks of work.”

He looks forward to the day he can explain to his daughter the incredible circumstances and aftermath of their first meeting.

“I'll always look back at those two or three weeks as one of the most memorable times of my entire life, just absolutely incredible,” he said.

“The way the timing worked out and everything came together, I think my faith in destiny has been renewed.”

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