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For Negroponte, Move to State Dept. Is a Homecoming
John Negroponte is leaving his Cabinet-level position as national intelligence director to be the deputy at State.
(By Evan Vucci -- Associated Press)
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A young woman peeked into the living room. "Where's George?" asked Alejandra, 23. George, 17, appeared. Then Sophia, 13, and John, 19.
Four of the five Negroponte children were at home. They drifted in and out of the living room, onto the couch and into the conversation. Asked how he stayed connected to the countries he served in, Negroponte said, "Mexico is a good example --"
Alejandra interrupted, "Well, Honduras -- there's us."
In Honduras, Negroponte and his wife, Diana, a historian, adopted five orphaned or abandoned Honduran children.
Negroponte, the son of a Greek shipping magnate, and Diana, the daughter of the chairman of British Steel, educated the children as they had been educated, taking them skiing at the Negroponte chalet in Switzerland, sending some to Negroponte's boarding school at Exeter and others to Diana's British boarding school, St. Mary's.
"A family tradition," Alejandra said.
"Tea, anyone?" Diana said, carrying a silver teapot. "Come on, you won't die of my tea."
"You might," joked Sophia.
The teacups were a wedding gift. "We haven't thrown them at each other," Diana teased.
"We have another set for that," Negroponte said.
Diana lighted a fire, her posture erect even as she bent over. The children sat around telling stories of their father's nine months in Iraq. Sophia said she was sad. They were not allowed to visit, for security reasons.
"On Thanksgiving we had him on speakerphone in the middle of the table for about an hour," Alejandra recalled. It was a black telephone. They called it Dad.
