Like a desert misses the rain

This summer, one thing I realized that in our life in China we miss water, and how water can be such a casual part of our American lives.

In shallow creeks where our family has a reunion




In dammed up creeks



In places called Buzzards Swamp



In backyard pools of all sizes





In the rivers that surround my favorite city



In parks with spraygrounds



In the ocean which felt so blessedly uncrowded compared to what folks back in China were experiencing at the beach.



I was terribly conscious and thankful of how much water we had access to on a recreational basis. This was more than just delighting over potable tap water, but also that we had so much uncontaminated water we could just play in it. Some of our best times in the US involve water, and we can't even come close to replicating that living in Changping.