Crimea in a day

Sitting in front of some flowers, and a lady posing on the monument
in shorts that are way too short.

We did not visit the orphanage today.  We had asked if we could take a side trip down to Yalta, a beach town here in Crimea.  The usual answer we get to these kinds of questions is, why?  Because we’ve been here for dang near four weeks and the only sight seeing has been a short trip to downtown Kiev.  That ain’t gonna cut it.  I want to be able to share in my daughter’s culture and language.  I can’t learn that staring at four walls.  So to get out and see the country side, we took off for Yalta.  We, actually our guide, called Sophia to let her know that we would not be coming to see her today and that we were going to try and find her new clothes that didn’t include a dress or a skirt.  She was happy and said she missed us.  I miss you too sweetheart.

Our first stop was a botanical garden.  It has flowers and trees.  Inside the botanical garden, they have a butterfly room.  We had a couple of butterflies land on us for pictures.  Next stop was a winery.  Massandra.  The winery was a pretty cool stop.  We went on a tasting.  Basically we all sit at tables with about 9 different wines.  One is dry, the rest are dessert wines and the last one is 75 years old.  This last one could be purchased for $175.  Here’s a thought, knock $170 off the price and you probably would have sold out 74 years ago.  But it certainly makes for a great story, just not gonna end up on my shelf.

They just walk right on to your hand.

Next we headed out of Yalta along the cost towards Sevastopol.  Along the way we stopped for lunch at a hillside restaurant that had beautiful views of the Black Sea.  After lunch, we continued on our circuitous route back to Simferopol.  We arrived back at our apartment at just before 5pm.  We needed water for the apartment so we headed over to the grocery store.  Between our apartment and the store are dozens of clothing stores so we went in to each trying to find a new outfit for Sophia to wear to court on Wednesday.  No luck.  They only have women’s sizes.  We were just about to call it a night when we got a call from some new friends of ours.  They offered to pick us up and take us to a pizza joint, Pesto’s Pizza (I think), and then drive us out to a Sam’s type store and see if we could find something there.  Dinner was great, the company was even better.  We met them at church on Sunday and hit it off immediately.  They too are going through the adoption process, but they live in Ukraine and have been here for 7 years.  They are translating the bible into Crimean Tartar, a local language.  This couple is super cool and a must meet for anyone coming over.  Definitely two people I will include in my prayer list.  They are adopting two older boys.  We found two different outfits that we think will work great for court.  We are excited to show them to her tomorrow.

All in all, today was another great day and we are thankful for His provisions.