Cranky Days

I think we (Mark, Maia, and I) are all ready to be home again. Each of us has been a little bit cranky over the past couple of days. Mark's not feeling well so if you would include him in your prayers, that would be wonderful. Nothing serious, probably just a virus or something along those lines.
Maia has been exercising her lungs - lol! All things considered, she has done extremely well during our trip thus far.  But, yesterday and today have been a battle of wills. She is determined to show how strong-willed she can be. In some things, that's ok. I know that as a parent I have to choose my battles. However, there are times when she needs a reminder she is not the one who gets to have all the control. So... she's having some unhappy moments. I'm sure that Sergei and Ludmila (the property owners) probably wonder what kind of torture we are putting the poor girl through. Oh, it is tough when you have to drink the WHOLE glass of milk or water at mealtimes. But, she doesn't drink much in the first place. It's very hot here right now and I don't want her to get dehydrated or have kidney difficulty. Try to explain that to a three year old! :-)
Ah, yes... the heat makes me cranky, too. I've never been a fan of hot weather and if you've been following the blog for a while, you may recall that Thankful Thursday during the summer often includes my gratitude for central air conditioning. Which is non-existent here in Ukraine. So, I am grouchy and sweaty.

Yesterday, we visited Matthew in the morning. Came back to the apartment for a quick lunch and then Vitaly took us to Alupka. We had visited the Alupinksy Castle last time, but were only able to tour the grounds as the castle itself is closed on Mondays (when we were there). So, we went back. Note to self - do NOT expect a hot, cranky 3 year old to behave on a guided tour. Yeah, not so pretty. Mark took Maia out shortly after the tour began and I finished the rest of the tour without them. We had hoped to go to Yalta, but it was getting late and as noted above, Maia was cranky so we just came home. Here are a few pics from our trip.

Palace Grounds

 A greenhouse type room in the palace. Beautiful flowers here.

Wine cooling tub in the dining room

 Isn't this a spectacular view of the mountains from the palace grounds? You can't see it but to the right is the Black Sea. It is breathtaking!

  The view to the right of the above pic.

There is a pond on the palace grounds with two swans.

The tree behind us is the only one of it's kind alive in the world. Not sure what it is.

Every day when we arrive at the orphanage, Maia goes running to the play area where Matthew's groupa is. She squeals, "There he is" when she sees him. And Matthew runs to give Mama and Papa ("Da-yee") a hug before giving Maia a kiss. He proudly tells all the caregivers that we are his mama and papa.