Eugene and Pam Santos of South Kingstown will depart for Ethiopia today to adopt an orphaned baby boy. At home, the kids have been getting ready.

01:05 AM EST on Saturday, December 4, 2004

BY KATIE MULVANEY
Journal Staff Writer

SOUTH KINGSTOWN -- Seven-year-old Hannah was the first to notice the extra magnet hanging on the refrigerator door. A fifth child's face smiled back at her one morning.

Those deep brown eyes belonged to Eli, who in one week will be the Santos family's newest addition. Six-month-old Elijah Yohanis will leave his native Ethiopia and join them in their rambling Post Road home.

Eugene and Pam Santos learned in late October that Eli would be joining their three biological children -- Emily, 10; Charlie, 9; and Hannah -- and 20-month-old adopted son Carter. Today, they leave on the long flight to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia's capital, to meet their son.

"I'm a 42-year-old woman, and I'm just as excited as if I was anticipating my first," said Pam, sitting in the family's bright sunroom, with squirmy, winsome Carter hooked under an arm.

The Santoses began contemplating giving the toddler a same-race sibling soon after his adoption from Texas 1 1/2 years ago. Their thoughts turned to orphans in Africa.

Their quest led them to Wide Horizons for Children, a Massachusetts-based adoption service, one of four nationwide operating in Ethiopia. In February, they began the process, compiling heaps of paperwork, opening their home to site visits and undergoing one-on-one interviews.

"It sounds corny, but we have a good thing going in this family and we have more to give," said Pam, a former social worker who met her husband at Meeting Street School in East Providence. "There are so many children needing homes."

Humanitarian organizations estimate that 1 million Ethiopian children have been orphaned by AIDS. Through the years, the country has been torn by bloody coups, a border war, and droughts. It is wracked by unemployment and poverty.

Journal photo / Ruben W. Perez

The Santos family, Hannah, 7; Charlie, 9; Carter, 20 months; Emily, 10; and mom, Pam, await the arrival of six-month-old Eli, from Ethiopia. Pam Santos and her husband, Eugene, will travel to Ethiopia's capital today to meet Eli and bring him back to their South Kingstown home.

Today, Eli lives with about 20 children at the Horizon House in Addis Ababa. The nonprofit agency opened the orphanage a year ago and has since facilitated 25 American adoptions, according to executive director Vicki Peterson. The average cost is about $18,000 per child, though occasionally subsidies are provided.

"You are saving a child from a very uncertain future. We're saving lives," said Peterson, whose organization gives $500,000 in humanitarian aid annually.

Eli will be Wide Horizons' second Ethiopian adoption in Rhode Island, the first was in Pawtuxet Village in Warwick this summer.

The Santoses know little about Eli, other than that he is healthy and celebrates a June 2nd birthday. What details they do know, they will share with Eli as he grows, not in a newspaper, Pam said.

"You really don't get too much background information. It's really a leap of faith," she said. "It's a huge amount of trust."

It's a leap the Santoses embrace after the wild success of Carter, a beaming, bright-eyed boy whose siblings race to greet each morning.

"For us, it's such a good match," Pam said.

The family has set about learning about Eli's home. Brightly colored maps of Africa hang at a child's eye level in the kitchen and next to the piano. Emily reads about Saba, one of the "Girls of Many Worlds" from the American Girl collection. And Ethiopian and Texas flags adorn the room the babies will share, their cribs just a few feet apart.

Carter seems ready for his new brother, singing "Eli, Eli-O" when he sees a photograph of Eli stretched out on a baby blue blanket.

Charlie, a sharp, bespeckled boy, is excited too -- but for different reasons.

"There are more boys in the family than girls now," he said.

In addition, three cats, two dogs, two bunnies, three sheep, four chickens, fish and a pet rat named Ralph await Eli.

"There's a lot of living going on in this house," Pam said.

The Santoses will bring two suitcases loaded with formula, ointments and other supplies donated by friends to the orphanage. Another hulking duffel bag is filled with clothes and goodies for Eli.

Days before leaving, Pam was moved by the gravity of what she and Eugene, a professor at Johnson & Wales University, would encounter on their journey.

"We're going to see need in a way I've never seen before," she said. "There are other places in the world where need is at a different level. I think that's an important Christmas gift for the children."

On Monday, they will meet Eli and bring him to their hotel room, chronicling each step by journal and videotape.

"It will be such a joy getting to know him, just the two of us," said Pam.

Next Saturday, they will return to South Kingstown.

Katie Mulvaney can be reached at kmulvane [at] projo.com or 277-7417.