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Lisa Riley Roche reporting for the Deseret Morning News Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. and first lady Mary Kaye Huntsman finally met the newest addition to their family today, 1-year-old Asha Bharati, after traveling halfway around the world to an orphanage in India.
Gov. Huntsman with first lady Mary Kaye greet their new adopted daughter Asha Bharati Tuesday December 19, 2006 in Nadiad, India.
"They got to hold her. She's theirs," the governor's chief of staff, Neil Ashdown, said in a telephone interview from the orphanage, where an Indian ceremony marking the Huntsmans' adoption of Asha was under way. "They had seen pictures of her and anticipated this moment for a long time. It was a joyful moment."
After some additional paperwork is completed in Delhi, Asha will be on her way home to Utah, along with her new father, mother and three of her six new siblings, including 7-year-old Gracie Mei, whom the family adopted as a baby from her native China.
Gracie Mei was especially enchanted with her baby sister, Ashdown said. "At first she was looking at her like a child at Christmas time," he said. "Then she eventually hugged her and she was stroking her hand ... I think she's already trying to play the big sister role."
Asha, though, remained silent, Ashdown said, noting the orphanage staff does not speak English.
Utah first lady Mary Kaye Huntsman and daughter Gracie Mei, who was adopted from China, pose for photos outside the Malru Chhaya Orphanage Tuesday.
But he said just the sight of her was enough to bring tears to the eyes of the first lady.
The family should be back in time to celebrate Asha's first Christmas together at the Governor's Mansion, which has already been decorated with the theme "Children in Utah United in the Community." Tucked among the festive decorations is a photograph of Asha.
The Huntsmans have been trying for much of the year to finalize Asha's adoption. They planned and canceled several trips to the Matru Chhaya orphanage run by the Sisters of Charity of Saint Anne in Nadiad, a city of about 200,000 in India's western Gujarat state.
Asha was placed in the orphanage after she was found abandoned in a field in the much smaller community of Karjan, Ashdown said. He said the baby was first taken to a police station and then, after no one claimed her, to the orphanage where she was called Kanak.
The family chose the name for their newest child because Asha means "hope" and Bharati means "India," Huntsman has said, describing the girl who has become his youngest daughter as "the hope of India."
The governor has kept a silver-framed photo of Asha as a baby in his private office at the state Capitol complex, as well as a stack of more recent photographs in his desk. But it wasn't until today — India is 12 1/2 hours ahead of Utah — that he and his wife were able to see her in person.
The meeting was to come after a brief family vacation in Singapore, where Huntsman had served as a U.S. ambassador. The Huntsmans are scheduled to head to Delhi late Tuesday or early Wednesday before returning to Utah on Friday.
Gov. Huntsman with first lady Mary Kaye greet their new adopted daughter Asha Bharati Tuesday.
The governor had hoped to bring Asha home as recently as October, at the end of the trade mission he led to China. Gracie Mei, who has begun to ask questions about her own adoption, would have been able then to see the country where she was born.
In addition to Asha and Gracie Mei, the Huntsman have two daughters, Mary Anne and Abby, who have left home to attend school in the East; two teenage boys, Jon III and William; and a teenage daughter, Elizabeth. William and Elizabeth joined Gracie Mei and their parents in India.
