Kind Words From Colombia

a few months ago i mentioned our new friends jose & luz helena upegui in our blog. jose works for kone and heath & i had the pleasure of meeting the upegui's back in march of this year. they welcomed us into their home with open arms and shared information and their stories about colombia (jose is from armenia & luz helena is from medellin). about two months ago i found out that jose was relocating back to colombia (with kone) and that he would be living in bogota! luz helena is staying back in moline with their daughter until she graduates from high school, so for now jose is living in an apartment in bogota. we recently corresponded via email and every time i hear from him, i get more and more excited about our upcoming trip! it turns out that he is living very close to los pisingos and not very far from the hotel we are considering staying at. the upegui's are so kind that they have even offered for us to stay at the apartment! his family is almost as excited as we are about our colombian adoption and it gives me such comfort knowing that we have such a wonderful, generous family thinking about us and willing to watch over us while we are far away from home. jose has advised us that, "the upegui network is at our disposal"! thank you upegui family!

Nuestra Nueva Familia!

hola! we are now part of a new family! heath & i were warmly welcomed to the upegui family & home in coal valley, illinois this past weekend. i believe i mentioned the upegui family in an earlier post, but in case you may have forgotten, jose manuel upegui works for kone in moline. he and his wife, luz helena, are both originally from colombia (armenia for jose & medellin for luz helena) and graciously offered to share their knowledge & love of the colombian culture with us. we had a wonderful time with them on saturday night! luz helena prepared a delicious dinner for us & they both shared very useful information & many stories about colombia in general as well as some specifics about bogota. we were able to meet their son, jose luis, and heard a beautiful story about their daughter, luz angelica, and her suprise "QSS" party (a very special blending of her quinceanera, celebrating her latino heritage, and her sweet sixteen).

it was a very special night for us as the stories shared helped put us even more at ease with our upcoming visit to colombia and also made us that much more excited to travel there to pick up our baby! we take great comfort in knowing how loving and caring colombian families truly are. the upegui's are so proud of their culture and have done a wonderful job combining their two cultures. at the end of the evening they presented us with two small gifts: a package of 100% colombian coffee & a copper replica of an indian mask! we took a few pictures together (i will post them as soon as luz helena sends me copies!) and left with the feeling that we are now part of a new family (nuestra nueva familia).

we look forward to growing our relationship with the upegui family & cannot wait to learn even more from them! we will be eternally grateful for this special connection.

angie