Connor and Patrick Wright are roommates in what their parents call “the big-boy room.”
“They love it. They lay in there at night and giggle,” said Becky Wright of Everett.
She and her husband, Cameron, decorated the room with airplanes and moved the boys in together to prepare for a big change in their three-bedroom home.
On Saturday, Becky Wright will fly off on a 22-hour journey to Ethiopia, in east Africa. She’ll bring home their third boy, a tiny 5-month-old named Alazar. When he joins the family, he’ll be Sean Alazar Wright, brother of Patrick, 3, and Connor, 10.
“We’re thrilled. I couldn’t sleep last night,” Wright said Wednesday.
She’ll travel with her mother, Debbie Blankinship of Issaquah, while her husband stays home for 10 days with the boys.
Cameron Wright, 38, is a critical-care nurse at the University of Washington Medical Center in Seattle. Becky, 35, is a stay-at-home mom.
The Wrights’ adoption was arranged by Adoption Advocates International, based in Port Angeles.
Since its start in 1983, the private nonprofit agency has placed children from many countries. Its focus now is finding homes for children from China, Thailand and Ethiopia and children in foster care in Washington state, said Susan Holmgren, an adoption social worker with the agency.
For the Wrights, who considered adoption before Patrick was born, the idea of adopting from Ethiopia came after a friend’s niece adopted three siblings from the African country.
When Becky Wright saw a picture of those children at the friend’s house last fall, she was moved to tears. Her mind was made up.
A decade ago, the couple became Orthodox Christians. On their way to a service at St. Andrew Orthodox Church in Arlington, they talked seriously about adopting an Ethiopian child. “We decided, my gosh, we can do this,” Becky Wright said.
They began the application process in November. A home study and a family dossier were completed. On June 7, they learned of their match with Alazar.
On the application, they said they’d take either a boy or a girl, up to 18 months of age. With millions of children in Africa orphaned by AIDS and many infected with HIV, Wright said they struggled with whether to take a child with serious health problems.
In the end, they decided against it because their older son is developmentally disabled.
“That was the hardest thing in the whole process. I had a terrible time with it,” Wright said. “We always have to think about after we’re gone, and who’s going to take care of Connor.”
Tests done in Ethiopia show Alazar is free of HIV, tuberculosis and hepatitis B and C. “Still, there are no guarantees,” Wright said. “We didn’t know anything was wrong with Connor until maybe 8 months old.”
They know “a small piece” of what happened to their baby’s family. “We’re going to keep that private,” Wright said.
Adoption Advocates International runs two foster homes in Ethiopia, Holmgren said. Children eligible for adoption have been proven through Ethiopian courts to be orphans or otherwise legally available, she said.
Fees with the agency depend on income. An average cost for an Ethiopian adoption is about $10,000, and less if a parent travels to pick up a child, Holmgren said.
After their baby is in Washington six months, the Wrights will go to court in Snohomish County. Alazar will be adopted, he’ll become a U.S. citizen, and his name will be legally changed.
The immediate challenge is travel. They’ll leave Sea-Tac airport on a British Airways flight bound for London’s Heathrow Airport, then fly to Alexandria, Egypt, and on to Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia.
Since arrests in Britain in an alleged terror plot, new security measures have further restricted what airline passengers can carry. “We’re allowed a laptop-computer-size carry-on, but no toiletries,” Wright said. “On the way home, we’ll have bottles of formula, which we’ll have to test, and diapers and wipes.”
And they’ll have Sean Alazar, precious, precious cargo. Three-year-old Patrick is very excited to meet his new brother. “When Connor sees his picture, he kisses it. He loves babies,” Wright said.
Janelle Gray, an adoption specialist with the agency, said Adoption Advocates International finds permanent homes for about 300 children each year.
“We do our best. We can help as many as we can help,” Gray said. “The children just keep coming.”
Columnist Julie Muhlstein: 425-339-3460 or muhlsteinjulie@heraldnet.com
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