Today

Today I miss:

- Dinner with Joel, Cara and family. Playing with Isaac and Autumn afterwards.
- Walking down the street to the kindergarten knowing when I got there 120 faces would light up.
- Da Fu Yuan and wondering around the back practising Chinese.
- Bus trips to Macau.
- The end of immigration in Macau, wlaking outside and breathing deeply before heading to a bus and into the mass of gamblers.
- Dinners with Andrew, Andrea and company- followed by Catan.....or Bible study.
- Vanguard.
- The Shangri-La- the way it smelled when I walked in and use of the internet there.
- My fellow teachers.
- Yuki.
- Jiao zi.

I don't long to be back in China. I don't long for the lack of space, the lack of people my age, the lack of freedom to drive, the hot weather 10 months of the year. I don't long for the trash on the sidewalks or the spitting.

I wonder if life in China would have been easier this year. I wonder why God put me here- knowing in my heart I am where I should be- but my mind is wondering why nothing has worked out as planned.

So today- while I don't long to be back in China- I do miss it.