Ok, so July isn't moving along quite the way we were hoping. Having said that, its only the 8th day of the month today, so theres room for things to change.

I got email from Becky, and apparently the new judge wants to take some time getting acquainted with his job before he starts issuing adoption approvals. As to how long this will take is anyones guess. Maybe a couple of weeks, maybe longer. Add to that the fact that theres a backlog of cases, and we really are left not knowing when this will happen. As Sue pointed out, the Supreme court actually had to "ungum" a couple of hundred cases last year, so hopefully someone points out to this guy that he best not take too long. I'm a wee bit clueless as to what this guy needs to get acquainted with. Everything is IN the files. CARA has approved us. What's left to look at? I mean, just put the little stamp on the piece of paper that says Rashid is ours forever, and we'll all be happy. Sounds so simple, doesn't it?

I'm trying once again to find the bright side. It gives us more time to save for our trip. We're now looking at travelling during the most expensive time of the year, and unless something happens fast, we're going to be looking at the real possibility that maybe Dad will be the only one coming to bring you home. We budgeted around $1500 each for our airfares, and around $1000 for yours. Poking around online just putting in random dates for August/September, there are very few cheaper fares, and the average fare looks to be around $4100 for that time of the year. Lots of people on the SOS board have told me about Erle from Azumano travel, who is apprently a miracle worker when it comes to fares, so heres hoping when the time comes that we get lucky. I'm still very hopeful that we'll have guardianship of you by the end of this month, and be able to travel before the end of summer vacation. Becky will be speaking to Lisa again on Wednesday next week, so hopefully we'll have more positive news then. I'm still really feeling like you're going to get to know about us this month.

Hang in there baby .... and I'll do the same.