Friday April 17, 2009 Monday through Thursday!

A Recap of Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday
I hope you enjoyed the pictures we posted. There will be more photos later…
I would now like to describe our adventures from Monday.
Natasha had been talking about our court appearance since we first arrived in Ukraine. She told us to read our dossier over and over. The judge would have a copy of our dossier and could ask questions based on any part of it, so we needed to be prepared.
A few days before we even knew about our court date Natasha wrote out a speech that I would need to read in front of the judge. It stated we were citizens of the United States and were here to be named the parents of Nicholi. It also said we wanted to change his name, but not his birth date or birthplace and gave a list his medical diagnosis. Luckily I did not have to memorize it! I had it written on a small note pad that I could read from in court. Lisa got off even easier. When the Judge asked her the same question she could answer, “I support my husband’s statement.”
The Court house is located very close to the Children’s home, so we have driven past it numerous times. From the outside the building did not look like a traditional court house…if we were not told it was, we never would have guessed it! I did not take any pictures inside…I plan to take a picture from the outside.
Our appointment was a 2:00 pm but we were told it could be earlier or later depending on how the previous cases were going…just like at home! We arrived around 1:35 and waited outside the courtroom. Around 1:45 we were allowed into the court room. It was not very big…there were three rows of benches, a small “holding cell” to the left, a witness stand, a couple of desks and of course the Judge’s large desk. While we were waiting for the Judge to come in Natasha was telling us all of the possible questions the Judge may ask….also during this time a lady came in the far door of the court room and placeda chair on either side of the Judge’s chair. These were for two local citizens. In the cases of adoption two citizens are invited to the proceedings and are allowed to ask questions to the perspective parents. There is also someone from the Inspector’s office representing the child, a court secretary who records the proceeding sand a prosecutor representing the government of Ukraine. The Inspector’s representative was the first person to enter the room and sit at the desk to the right of the judge. Natasha spoke with her and found the Judge was in an “excellent mood.”
As we continued to wait, Natasha kept remembering more and more possible questions that could come up….this was making me more and more nervous. I had felt a little queasy since Sunday night….I knew I was stressing over the court appearance…….and now here we were in the court room waiting and waiting for the Judge.
Around 2:39 and 19 seconds he entered the room, along with the secretary and the two citizen representatives….no prosecutor…so far so good. The moment he entered, the three of us stood up and waited for him to tell us to be seated.
The Judge was a very kind looking gentleman with a round face, salt a pepper hair and mustache…we think he was in his late 50’s.
He began by introducing himself and explaining why were here on this day. As he spoke in Ukraine, Natasha, who was standing next to me and to the left of both Lisa and I, translated everything to English. We quickly learned to keep eye contact with the Judge while slightly tipping our heads to the left to hear the translation.
The Judge began reading our court documents….the same documents that Natasha had already shared with us, so we were very familiar with what he was saying. While were listening I was waiting to hear my name. Natasha had told us he would state my name before he asked me a question. We were expecting him to ask why we were there so I could deliver my well rehearsed speech. After about five minutes or so he finally addressed me and both Natasha and I stood up. He then asked me to state my name, birthdate and birthplace. He was trying to repeat “Canoga Park, California” but kept pronouncing the ‘G’ as an ‘H’….. he then asked me if Canoga Park was a town or a village. I told him it was a city. He then asked the approximate population of Canoga Park….I panicked and said 200,000.…is that even close? Somebody check that out for me please! He asked if both my parents were still alive and if I had any siblings, nieces and nephews. He said I had a very large family! He then asked me a question I did not quite understand, but tried to answer anyway….my answer must have worked since he moved on! I will check the transcript later to read what happened! He then asked if I was ready to take the responsibility of raising Nicholas and make them mine. Lastly he said that what we were doing was the work of a Saint, since we were opening our home to a child in need of so much. Then he said I could be seated and asked Lisa to stand. Lisa was asked to state her name, birthdate and birthplace. He asked if Richardson, Texas was a beautiful place, to which she said “yes.” He next asked if she, “had a special feeling in your heart whenever you were in the place you were born?” Lisa told him that the hospital was no longer there, but she was very proud to be from Texas! Next she was asked if she had nieces or nephews. She said that she currently had the 4 nieces and 4 nephews by marrying me but would have another niece the next day (April 14th) since here sister-in-law Sabrina was going to give birth. The Judge said, “Zapta?” Which means “Tomorrow?” And Lisa then explained it was a C-section. The Judge then immediately said that he hoped all went well. (Sabrina and Andy did have their little girl on the 14th of April…all are doing well) He then told Lisa she was also doing the work of a Saint for becoming the mother of boy in need and asked her to sit down. Since no one else had any questions the Judge said he would excuse himself and render his verdict.
We were all surprised how quickly it went and the lack of questions. Natasha told us that you never know how these proceedings will go, but it is better to be prepared!
After about 18 minutes the Judge returned and we all stood up. He asked us to be seated and began to read his verdict.
Lisa and I were holding holds as the verdict was handed down…
He said we were to be named the parents of Nicholas Alexander Aronin. We were so happy…this was the news we had been waiting for!!
The first two people we saw when we came out of the court room were Natalie and David. Their court appearance was next….they both congratulated us on becoming parents. We wished them the best for their case and immediately went back to our car with Natasha. It was then we were told that our ten day wait had been waived! We could not believe it since everyone had been telling us this period is rarely waived. We still have no idea why it was waived but are very grateful it was since we could immediately start the process to get a new birth certificate and a passport for Nicholas. In fact we were so busy running around all over town with Natasha we were not able to make our afternoon visit to Nicholas…how ironic the day we were named his parents we had to miss our regular afternoon visit.
We would also have to miss our Tuesday morning visit since we had to again go all over town…We did get to see him for a little while in the morning since we had to take him to the passport office to get his Ukraine passport photo taken. Since our current driver’s car is so small we had to split up. We had to get Nicholas, one of his Nanny’s, Natasha, Lisa and I to the passport office. On the way to a different office Natasha told us that our regular driver, whose car we were currently in, had to leave for a while and we would have to take a different car and driver to get Nicholas. Just then, another car pulled up and parked in front of us. Lisa and I got out of car number one and got into car number two. The stereo was on very loud, the inside temperature was very warm, he had leopard print seat covers, the handles used to roll up and down the windows in the back seat were both missing, his rear view mirror was missing, there were three toy cars glued to his dashboard (two red Ferrari’s and a red Formula One car,,,,not a good sign), he had nearly no gas and he looked exactly like Dirk Nowitski but a foot and half shorter…..we first drove to a gas station where he purchased enough gas to move the needle on his gas tank from below ’E’ to just a hair above a quarter tank. When then went to another office where both Lisa and Natasha got out, They were going to get the new birth certificate and then go to a tax office via Taxi Cab. I was supposed to be going to the Children’s Home to pick up Nicholas and a Nanny and then all of us were going to the Passport office to meet up with Natasha and Lisa. When the driver got the front of the Children’s home he stopped and parked outside….I tried to tell him I needed to go inside to get Nicholas, but he motioned for me to stay in the car….so I did…after about 5 minutes Natasha thankfully called to see how I was progressing. When I told her the driver would not let me get out of the car she asked to speak with him….she then told him I needed to go inside and get the child and the Nanny so he could take us to the passport office…or so she thought…as soon as I got out of the car he promptly left! Natasha called back 45 seconds later and asked to speak with the driver again. I told her he was gone! She said she would call him directly and explain again. By them time I came back downstairs with Nicholas and the Nanny, the driver was back and off we went!
The Passport office was very small inside. We arrived about 15 minutes before Lisa and Natasha. The Nanny and I did our best to keep Nicholas entertained. He walked up and down the narrow hallway and tried to go into every office. I told him that people were trying to work and did not have time for small visitors! When Lisa and Natasha arrived we had to wait an additional 15 minutes before we were allowed into the office to get his picture taken. After 5 tries they were finally able to get a good enough shot. After that we had the Taxi Cab take Nicholas and the Nanny back to the Children’s home and the three of us got back into Dirk’s ride and continued our running around. We did manage to get to the Internet Café to post some pictures and then ended our day with our regular afternoon visit….we all slept well Tuesday night.
Wednesday started off with our regular morning visit…afterwards we went clothes shopping. We were told by Natasha that the day we get to take Nicholas from the Children’s Home we will have to provide all new clothing. Once we were done shopping we went to buy some more souvenirs, went to lunch and then went back to the apartment for the rest of the evening.

Thursday…April 16, 2009
Today we only saw Nicholas in the morning, since we had plans in the afternoon after going to lunch.
After lunch it was off to “The Island.” This is the area where the Cossacks first arrived and settled in the Zaporizhzhia area. The Cossacks have a long and rich history here. We were able to explore a small portion of the island, visit a museum and see part of a live performance featuring whip tricks and trick horse riding. We will post the photos soon.
We hope to post again soon with some news about when we get to come home!!