INDIANAPOLIS — When we last visited the Wright family over a year ago, they were sitting at this same table, detailing Anton's daunting journey fleeing Ukraine to the United States after war broke out.
The journey was successful, thanks to the Wright family's large network of foreign exchange students they've housed over the years who helped usher Anton every step of the way .
"It was like something from a movie. Hike through the forest in the middle of the night. Get out of a war zone. Go through four countries. Finally, find your way back home to the people you call mom and dad," said Thomas Wright.
Those are two titles Beth and Thomas had been waiting to make official ever since the Ukrainian orphan came to stay with them years before the war as one of their many exchange students.
"We had to secure his immigration through a different route because he came into America over the age of 18. After working through that process at first our lawyer said that's all you need to do once he gets his green card, he's fine. You don't really have to adopt him. We look at him and said we really have to adopt him," Thomas said.
On Tuesday, they got their wish when all three of them sat before a judge and made it official.
"To be there in person and have family around us and solemnly swear to the court, 'Yes, I want to adopt this boy as my son,'" said Beth.
"These people care about me and love me. I felt the same way. I felt honored to experience that. To have that, that's what I understood. Something special here. Something a real family that I never had," said Anton.
Never had, but it was always in his grasp.
"I tell people being Anton's dad is an adventure every day. We are always learning something new," said Thomas.
Even though Anton had to wait 21 years for the adoption, he and his parents say it was worth the wait.
"Everyone deserves love and we have to treat people with the dignity they deserve," said Beth.
"The way God designed my way. No one could design it this way," said Anton.