Utah governor, his family pick up baby at Indian orphanage

Along with paying India's $3,500 international adoption fee, the Huntsmans donated $10,000 to the orphanage.

Utah governor, his family pick up baby at Indian orphanage

Huntsmans: 'She will be loved'

By Rebecca Walsh

The Salt Lake Tribune

Article Last Updated: 12/20/2006 09:08:36 AM MST

Click photo to enlarge Sister Kokila Barmar, who cared for baby Asha during the... (Chris Detrick/The Salt Lake Tribune)

NADIAD, India - For a year, Sister Kokila Barmar has been there every time Asha Huntsman cried.

Even after the 1-year-old was in her new mother's arms Tuesday, the quiet nun was always nearby, ready to whisk the little girl away. And she did. Repeatedly.

But eventually, Barmar and the Catholic orphanage where Asha has lived since her birth let her go.

Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr., his wife, Mary Kaye, and three of their children picked up the newest member of their family in a small village in the western state of Gujarat. After hours of unexpected pomp and ceremony, the Huntsmans hunkered down in a hotel for some peace and quiet and the chance to bond.

Liddy Huntsman, right, takes a picture of her new baby sister Asha and her mother Mary Kaye. Click here for a photo gallery. (Chris Detrick/The Salt Lake Tribune)

"We will take good care of her," the governor told the founder of Matruchhaya Orphanage, Sister Maria Maya, as Asha left the orphanage. "She will be loved."

The Huntsmans had hoped to slip into the town unnoticed. But that was not to be. Gujarat's chief minister learned of the adoption and sent a military escort complete with armed uniformed officers and a blaring siren. As the caravan of white hotel cars careened through ramshackle villages and between camel-drawn wagons and tractor traffic in the regional capital of Ahmedabad, just-waking residents stopped and stared.

At the orphanage, a crowd of Indian media and townspeople gathered to welcome the family. A brass band played. Troops of

Advertisement

teenage girls in bright costumes performed traditional dances on the path in front of them. Others dipped their fingers in vermilion and applied a dot of the bright-red paint and a few grains of rice to the forehead of each member of the family - a "bindi" - and hung necklaces of jasmine and roses around their necks. Young orphanage girls showered the family with marigold and rose petals.

Inside the lesson and play room, the Huntsmans were put on a dais in front of a phalanx

Photo Gallery

Asha Joins Utah First Family

of cameras for speeches and document-signing. The family looked a bit dazed, game smiles on their faces as one hour dragged into two.

"This is a great day, an important day," said Father Vincent Moonnu. "For us, she is our child."

Asha was left on the side of the road in a nearby town called Karjat within hours of her birth in November 2005 - unwashed and untouched. The police picked her up and dropped her off at the orphanage, a compound of walled buildings on the banks of a stagnant lily pond. They called her Kanak. It means "gold."

"Thank you, that you give the chance to our children," said Sister Pushpa, acting director of the orphanage.

The

Sister Kokila Barmar, who cared for baby Asha during the past year, hands the child to her new mother, Mary Kaye Huntsman, at the Matruchhaya Orphanage in India. Click here for a photo gallery. (Chris Detrick/The Salt Lake Tribune)

notary was called in and the final documents relinquishing custody were signed.

Only then did the Huntsmans get to meet their daughter in person - and in front of the crowd. Whether it was the cacophony of her farewell, her age or the time of day - she needed a nap - Asha Huntsman showed her displeasure with the proceedings from the beginning, covering her eyes under the flash of the journalists' cameras. Wearing a plastic silver tiara and a white, knit creeper and tennis shoes, she stared, bewildered.

Wiping away tears, Mary Kaye Huntsman approached tentatively, reaching out for her youngest daughter. She had predicted the spillover on the plane from Delhi.

"I'm going to cry," she said. And she did.

As the ceremony continued with more dancing and speeches, she handed Asha a tissue, digital camera, BlackBerry - anything to distract. "I can feel her bond immediately," she said. "She just grabs on."

The Huntsmans thanked the orphanage's 12 nuns and 35 "helpers" for taking care of their daughter. Home to about 60 abandoned children, most of them girls, the orphanage is managed by the Sisters of Charity, St. Ann based in Spain. Tuesday, the home was decked out for Christmas, with colorful tinsel garlands and an animatronic Santa in the hallway that sings "Jingle Bells" when touched. In the nursery, stuffed animals hang from string strung across the room. Along with paying India's $3,500 international adoption fee, the Huntsmans donated $10,000 to the orphanage.

Tuesday's spectacle was unusual. The governor's staff figured the orphanage decided to use the adoption as a chance for publicity. It worked. Tuesday night, IBN, CNN's partner in India, carried a story of the adoption.

Asha means "hope" in Hindi.

"I come from the other side of the world. But the most important thing we can do is show love and respect for one another," Huntsman said. "And everyone understands the word 'hope.' We say it in different languages, but it means the same thing. Asha will carry with her the spirit and good will of this orphanage."

After the nuns fastened a silver charm bracelet around the little girl's ankle, Sister Barmar carried Asha away to the quiet of the nursery for a bowl of mashed bread in milk. The crowd joined them quickly as Utah's first family - reporters and gawkers in tow - toured the orphanage and the governor and first lady fed Asha.

"You are a silly little girl," Huntsman cooed, as Asha bit down on the spoon.

By lunchtime - a feast prepared in the orphanage - she was asleep on his shoulder, thumb firmly in mouth.

Then, it was time to go to the temple for a final Hindu blessing.

Sister Barmar's eyes filled with tears as the little girl, her new family and the throng of reporters moved back to the cars.

Letting go of the child she raised "is hard," she acknowledged, "but it is for her future. We know she is going to a good family. But at the same time, we feel pain in the heart."

And then she rushed to prop up another little girl for a picture with Utah's governor. Perhaps her face will appear in Indian newspapers or on television. And maybe someone will adopt her.

walsh@sltrib.com

http://www.utahkrishnas.com/main/page.asp?id=1515