Her mom was working as a maid. Her dad’s

Alzheimer’s was in high gear. And the rent on

her parents’ small Chicago apartment had just

gone up. Again. But Lori was holding it all

together: helping care for her dad and pay her

family’s bills, figuring out how to navigate

graduate school and four jobs on top of her

family responsibilities, and, somehow,

continuing to believe that there was more to life

than this.

And there was. An exciting job teaching at a

prestigious school in China. Although the

previous month, she had turned down a job offer

in Iowa―thinking it was too far away from her

family―she felt completely at ease accepting

the job in China. Grasping on to the fierce

determination she’d had since childhood, Lori

found herself in Guangzhou, China, where she

fell in love with the culture and with a man from

a tiny town in Hubei province. What followed

was a transformative adventure―one that will

inspire readers to use the bitter to make life

even sweeter.