LOVE & HAITI
How trip to a tiny town on the Caribbean island changed lives of Boones & two boys forever
TAMPA — He had just circled the bases at old Yankee Stadium, hands raised in triumph after his walkoff home run off Tim Wakefield ousted the Red Sox from the ALCS in an epic Game 7 in the Bronx.
When Aaron Boone finally got past the maw out on the field, and had squeezed himself into the crowded clubhouse, champagne flowing and cameras clicking, the first name he shouted wasn’t manager Joe Torre’s, Derek Jeter’s or that of any other Yankee teammate. “Where’s Laura?” Boone yelled as he parted the media sea to get to his locker.
“Zero to hero,” Laura Boone says now with a laugh. “Yeah, we didn’t have any kids then.”
Aaron’s famous 2003 playoff blast came less than a year after he and Laura got married in Coronado, Calif., an event she calls, “the whole baseball wedding,” in reference to Aaron’s baseball lineage — his grandfather, Ray, father, Bob, and brother, Bret, were all former big leaguers. It would be another two years before Laura, a former Playboy Playmate, and her baseball player husband started their own family. The couple welcomed son Brandon in 2005, while Boone was playing for the Indians, and daughter Bella arrived in 2009, Aaron’s last year playing in the majors.
The Boones settled in Scottsdale, Ariz., after Aaron’s baseball career ended, and as Aaron transitioned seamlessly into a broadcast career — he was with ESPN from 2010 until he was hired by the Yankees in late 2017 to become the pinstriped franchise’s 33rd manager — both he and Laura became active members of their church, Highlands, and were busy raising two kids. It didn’t seem as if the Boone family life could get any more hectic. Until it did.
“We were not looking for more kids, actually,” says Laura Boone. “I wasn’t a mom that dreamed of having four kids.”
But everything changed for the Boones starting in 2012, when Laura embarked on a Highlands mission trip to Haiti, initially with a goal to help in whatever way she could. She admits to also being “naïve” about the island’s culture and history, which has had its share of political turmoil and civil unrest stretching back centuries.
“All clichés apply,” Laura says. “It was just, ‘I want to do good.’”
The Highlands trip was done in partnership with the Chances for Children nonprofit, an organization founded in 2006 by Kathi and former Canadian Football League QB Craig Juntunen, and whose mission has grown dramatically since its start to include everything from improving children’s lives to humanitarian efforts to rebuilding and empowering communities through faith-based programs. The Juntunens adopted three children from Haiti.
Kathi Juntunen says she knew Laura through Scottsdale preschool circles, but it wasn’t until the 2012 mission trip that the two women met for the first time when they were on the same van at Toussaint Louverture International Airport in Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince, preparing to be shuttled to a remote, mountainous region to the southeast.
Soon Laura and the other church members were helping build a medical clinic in tiny Kenscoff, a town that sits nearly 5,000 feet above sea level. Haitian boys from a local orphanage would come to help with the labor each day, and Juntunen still remembers vividly how the interactions between Laura and a little boy named Jeanel evolved.
“They were helping dig out the mud, so we could lay the foundation,” says Juntunen of the orphanage boys who volunteered. “Laura and her team were helping with that project as well. She met Jeanel as he was working. There was something magical about it. They definitely connected right away. They always sought each other out during the week. It was just really touching.
“Jeanel would always hang back to be with Laura,” continues Juntunen. “He really kind of pierced her heart, and vice versa.”
Laura Boone says that the 2012 Haiti experience was “life-changing,” and that when she returned to Scottsdale after the trip, the wheels were already turning in her head. She says that her husband should have known something was afoot when she didn’t immediately open up about the trip.
“You know what happens when wives are quiet,” jokes Laura. “Aaron was great about it. Right away he was like, ‘I trust you in this. I’m open to it.’”
Aaron says that the idea to adopt was an “organic” one, and that expanding their family wasn’t initially on the Boones’ radar when Laura left for Haiti that first trip. “Basically, (Laura) came home and said, ‘We need to do something,’” says Aaron. “We started to have the conversation about potentially adopting.”
Laura returned to Haiti a second time in 2012, and became more involved with the work done by Chances for Children, including taking the lead with feeding programs designed to get food to malnourished children in different towns. In subsequent trips to the island, Laura learned that Jeanel (JOHN-el) had a little brother, Sergot (SIR-go). Both brothers were living in the same orphanage near Kenscoff, before they were moved to a
This story originally appeared in the Daily News’ 2018 Baseball Preview issue, available on newsstands.
crèche, which differs from an orphanage in that it allows for adoption.
“Haiti’s complicated. Certain things are hard for us to fathom,” says Aaron, who eventually joined Laura on trips there once the adoption process was underway. “When Laura first went down there, (Jeanel and Sergot) were not in the best of situations. Not great is an understatement. It hits you hard.”
Aaron says it took about two years for the adoptions to become official — “You hear horror stories of four or five years,” he says — but before Jeanel and Sergot arrived in the U.S., Laura and Aaron used the multiple visits to Haiti to bond even closer with the two boys.
“I told Aaron, ‘Bring a ball and bat to play with them.’ The kids had fun, but they had no idea what a bat was, or what to do with it. They hadn’t seen a baseball at all,” says Laura. “All they know is soccer. Baseball is not big there.”
The Boones, who eventually joined the Chances for Children board (Aaron has since left after getting the Yankee job), also got to meet Jeanel’s and Sergot’s biological parents, an emotional but ultimately richly rewarding experience. “They gave their blessing,” says Aaron. “They were great with us,” adds Laura. But since 2014, when Jeanel, 15, and Sergot, 13, moved to the U.S. to begin a new chapter of their lives, only Sergot has returned to Haiti with Laura. She says she will leave it up to both of her adopted sons as to how involved they want to be with their biological parents.
“I’ll let them come to me on that. There’s a culture gap there that’s tough to sometimes make it not awkward,” says Laura. “(Jeanel’s and Sergot’s parents) want the best for them. They have gone through hard times for sure — that they couldn’t provide for their kids. Sergot did OK on his return. We’ll see. I’m sure it’s a little challenging.”
Having a husband and wife agree on an issue as daunting as the adoption of two boys is one thing, but Aaron and Laura Boone had to get approval from their two biological kids, who were still under the age of 10 at the time.
“What would that look like for (Brandon and Bella)?” says Laura. “Having two biological children at home, we started talking about the pros and cons a lot. Hopefully it would be a good thing for everyone. Ultimately, that’s the idea of adoption.”
The transition proved to be smoother than either parent could have imagined. Brandon, now 12, and Bella, now 8, were “really excited” to have new siblings, according to Aaron.
“I’m sure on some level there’s an adjustment,” he says. “We have some that get along all the time better, some that bicker with each other. Generally speaking, four happy kids.”
“The dynamic of three boys — any time we would play anything that involved a score, there was that adjustment,” says Laura.
Laura’s mom, Leona, is a full-time nurse who lives with the Boones in Scottsdale, and the house of seven is not unlike the family portraits on the hit ABC sitcom, “Modern Family.”
“Oh, it’s something like that,” jokes Laura. “I’m sure there were friends and family that have an opinion. If so, they didn’t share it. But I feel like everyone was really supportive.” Laura says her mother, who is single, hasn’t yet visited Haiti.
“Nooo,” says Laura. “We’re trying to get her to go with us. I think Haiti is tough for some people. I don’t know how she would deal with it. Maybe one day.”
Aaron’s parents and brothers (in addition to Bret, the youngest Boone brother is Matt) and all extended family members were on board immediately with his and Laura’s plans to expand their brood.
“It’s like they’ve been with us forever,” says Aaron of his adopted sons. “It blows me away at how well they’ve done and how proud of them I am.”
“Why do we want people from Haiti here?” was the blunt question asked by President Trump in January, according to multiple media reports that detailed a closed-door Oval Office meeting to discuss a proposed immigration deal. Trump also wondered why the U.S. should accept immigrants from “sh--hole countries” like Haiti.
“It made Laura pretty upset. Haiti is her heart,” says Aaron Boone, referring to Trump’s remarks. “We didn’t like it at my house, certainly. But I don’t want to read into the context of the comment.”
Laura, when asked about Trump’s reported criticisms of Haitians, musters a laugh.
“Politics,” she says. “I really have no idea what to make of that. I only know personally that Haiti is great to me in many ways.”
Both Boone parents say they sat down with Jeanel and Sergot to discuss the Trump comments, and Laura adds that “in general, we let them know that they can make their own choices with politics and, as they will, even religion.”
“Like any parent, our kids are going to have their own opinions. We have a mix of all political sides in both our families,” she says. “I just try not to let (Jeanel and Sergot) believe everything — no offense — in the media. Form their own opinions, but be careful, that’s our general rule.”
While Jeanel is the budding soccer star in the Boone family, his little brother Sergot has a penchant for trying anything and everything, including trying to learn to hit a curveball and chase down a pop fly.
“Jeanel was actually a (high school) freshman on varsity this year,” says Aaron. “The soccer team lost the state championship. That’s his passion. He lives it. Sergot played Little League last year. He’s a good soccer player, too, but he didn’t play this year because he wanted to play baseball. He’s played tackle football. He does jiu-jitsu. Sergot’s the glue of our family. Just the sweetest, most tenderhearted kid.”
Laura calls Sergot “a goof” who had a “wild streak in him” at first.
“They all four have their cool things about them for sure,” she says.
On a recent Saturday at Steinbrenner Field in Tampa, Aaron Boone is shuffling around the clubhouse, occasionally fistbumping one of his players. Meanwhile, in the lobby of the stadium, Laura is with her mother-in-law, Sue, (Bob’s wife), and her four kids, all of them set to take in a Grapefruit League Subway Series tilt between the Bombers and Mets.
The Boones will move east this summer — “Another wrench in the plan,” jokes Aaron — and set up shop in the New York metropolitan area, where all four Boone children will begin a new chapter, while Laura plans to continue her Chances for Children work. It’s a million miles away from the storybook wedding at the Hotel del Coronado, the 2003 ALCS homer and the rugged terrain of Kenscoff.
“We try to stress that life is about experiences,” says Laura. “You make the best of it. Not everything is always permanent. We’re excited.”
Laura Boone is asked if she could have ever envisioned where she is now.
“No, I didn’t. Life’s funny like that,” she says. “Obviously, I couldn’t imagine it any other way.”