Monday morning greetings from Guatemala...

Hello everyone,
Sorry that the posts have been somewhat sparce. Getting on the Internet has been somewhat challenging. As I write, we are sitting at the breakfast table. Odd, I can't get on the Internet anywhere but at the breakfast table. Yesterday was another great tour. We went to the market in Chichicastanago. For a little spanish lesson, tanage means "the place of" and chichicas means poison ivy. Fortunately we did not experience the poison ivy. However, it is an absolutely beautiful flowering plant with big beautiful purple berries. As for the market, it was an interesting experience, but probably one I would only desire to do once. As you will see from the picture below the "three foot" rule was definately violated. It was interesting, but exhausting.

After the market, we went to Lake Atitlan. It was also very pretty, however a bit of a hazy day. You can see that the lake is in the middle of three large volcanoes.

Today is a pickup day - we get to pick up Caleb's visa at the embassy. We are going to go to the tourist market. That is much tamer and more our style.

Here are a couple of pictures for you to "visit" with us...







The market. Sabra is quite the bargainer...












This is a picture of our tour driver. He was wonderful. He actually did most of the bargaining for us to make sure we got a good deal.






Momma and her baby boy. Such a long journey, but finally in her arms forever!!













I wish I could say this volcanoe is from some great tour we took, but actually it taken from the balcony of our hotel room. Not too bad a view huh?
















These are some picuters of the family at Lake Atitlan. Some say it is "heaven on earth." I say if heaven is as nice or nicer than this, we have a LOT to look forward too.

More pictures from Guatemala

Our first stop in Antigua was to one of the 5 star hotels in Central America. This picture was from a courtyard where they have weddings and other celebrations. The courtyard was full of these parrots.










Hannah reading to her new little brother














Me and Caleb after his bath.








This is our little one who wasn't going to be jealous of having a new brother.











This has been a really nice trip. Sabra probably posted this earlier, but we were able to get out and do some sightseeing today. On our last trip, we couldn't leave the hotel. Guatemala is a very beautiful country and I am glad we get to see it. It will give us nice memories to share with Caleb later in his life.

Tomorrow we will go to another place that has been been described as "heaven on earth".

Internet has been a little bit spotty, so if we don't post as often, that is why.

We are enjoying our trip, but we can't wait to get home and settle down as a family. God has truly blessed with Caleb, he is totally the right guy for our family. I guess when we trust Him, we end up with His best!! His best is even better than we could dream of ourselves.

Take care,
Bus (and Sabra, Hannah and Caleb)

Hola from Antigua!

I just wanted to post a couple of pictures of the family! We will write more later!
-Sabra

Our internet service has been down!

Hey to all our wonderful readers! Our internet has been down, and so we have had a hard time posting!! We are back up and running, and boy do we have a lot of pictures to share with you! We went to our embassy appointment on Friday, and it went fabulously! We were approved, so Caleb is our son!! Now we must wait till Monday to get his visa to travel back to the USA!

Today, we went to Antigua! It was incredible! So much history, that I am still sorting through all the things our wonderful guide, Hacobo, told us! We will share with you some pictures we took while we were there!

There is so much we will share, but I will post a couple of quick pictures with you now, since we haven't been able to post any!

We love you all!
Sabra

Our Beautiful son!

Well, after such a long adoption journey, we finally have our wonderful son! He is so amazing! We are all still getting use to one another, but he has bonded nicely with each of us! He knows Bus is the fun one, I am the provider of food and diaper changes, and Hannah, well, Hannah is the big sister!!

Hannah has met her moment of jealousy, and also wants to be like the baby. She wanted a bottle, but I was able to talk her out of it-after she smelled it! She has had a jar of pear baby food, and is begging to finish Caleb's off! Bus and I have both held her in the cradle position-can't leave her out of anything!! Ha ha!

Today we had a wonderful time by the pool! I took a few pictures, and of course will share them-that is why you look at the blog, right?! Hannah swam in the pool, and played with a little 4 year old boy that she met that is being adopted by a lady from Florida! He speaks no English, but they have a wonderful time, anyway, and they just hug and giggle! Isn't it wonderful to be a child, and relate to everyone so well?!

We have our embassy appointment tomorrow at 7:45 am! They tell us it will take about 2 hours! Keep us in your prayers! We will post more later!
Love,
Sabra, Bus, Hannah and Caleb!
P.S. The one picture is of Caleb giving you all a "sleepy kiss" back home!!

Introducing the new and improved Maslin family...

Drum roll please....




Not the most impressive picture, but believe it or not, we were a little bit overwhelmed.

There is no way to describe the emotion, so I won't try.

Bus, Sabra, Hannah and CALEB Maslin

Today's the big day!!

Well... After very long wait and journies that took us to parts of the world we never dreamed we would visit, the day has finally arrived!!! This morning at 10:00am (hopefully!!) they will bring Caleb over here to the Marriott.

While this is a very joyous time for us, we also know how hard it must be for Caleb's foster mother. Caleb is the first child that she has taken care of. We can't imagine how hard that must be to take care of a baby from the time he is 2 days old and then one day just hand him to someone else. We are forever endeared to her for taking such loving care of our little Caleb during the time that we couldn't. Please pray for her that God will help her through this time.

On a different note, we have have met so many people throughout this process. It is so interesting that many of the people we met on our fist visit trip are here now to pick up their children. We saw a guy at the Atlanta airport who we met on the first trip. His wife has been in Antigua fostering their little girl for a couple of months. We also saw another couple here at the Hotel that was here in November and three other couples are supposed to be here this week.

On a most interesting note, Sabra was sitting in the Adoption lounge and in walked a lady that we know from Lexington. She is down here picking up her second little girl. Small world, huh?

I will close with this... On the day that our family changes forever, there are a lot of wonderful memories that we have had with just the three Amigos (Sabra, Hannah and Bus). Hannah is such a wonderful daughter. She has truly "rolled with the punches" throughout her life. She has had a pretty busy life since her mom and dad move all the time, hop in the car and go all the time. Throughout it all, she just goes along for the ride. What a truly great kid she is!!

Well - audiose for the last time as the family you have known... The next blog will be from our new family (and may even include a picture).

Love,
Bus, Sabra, and Hannah

We're Here!!!

Just a quick post to let everyone know that we arrived safely. The Atlanta airport it treachorous, but the flight was nice. We lucked out and got into the Marriott tonight (we were unable to confirm our reservation for tonight, but when we got here, they had a room for us.)

We will write more later, but just want to let everyone know we got here safely!!

Bus

We Got our PINK SLIP-EMBASSY APPOINTMENT!!

We got a phone call around 6:45 pm tonight that we finally got our embassy appointment to pick up Caleb! We fly to Guatemala City on Tuesday of next week, and will be home the following Tuesday with our beautiful baby boy!! Our embassy appointment is on Friday, Feb. 24!! We are so thrilled, and excited!! We have decided to take Hannah with us, and she is thrilled to finally be getting her new baby brother!! Please keep us in your prayers as we finally go to get our son.
We will post pictures as soon as we can-sometime next week!
With love,
Sabra, Bus and Hannah

There is a baby boy in Guatemala with the last name of Maslin!!

We got a phone call last night that our new birth certificate was issued with Caleb's last name as Maslin!! We were so thrilled to get this news! We are thrilled that things seem to actually be happening this time! We are hopefull that we could be travelling as early as next week-we want to arrive a little early to take a tour of surrounding cities! We will let you know what we find out! Please continue to keep us in your prayers!
Thanks,
Sabra , Bus, Hannah & Caleb