Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Long Story Short: Year of the Water Goat
    Long Story Short: Year of the Water Goat
    Long Story Short: Year of the Water Goat
    Ebook49 pages36 minutes

    Long Story Short: Year of the Water Goat

    By Jan Risher

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    Long Story Short: Year of the Water Goat is a must read for anyone who has or is considering adopted internationally, especially from China. Columnist Jan Risher believes one of the most important aspects of international adoption is the embracing of a new culture and country for the adopting family as well.

    According to the Chinese zodiac, 2003 was the year of the water goat. It was a big year for newspaper columnist Jan Risher and her family. They had just returned from China with a new baby girl at the end of 2002. By October in the year of the Water Goat, Risher was heading back to her youngest child's homeland to assist in starting an English program for the young adults too old to be adopted and remained in the orphanage where her daughter lived as an infant. Just outside the orphanage, Risher witnessed a young woman on a bike run over by a truck and the shocking aftermath of the accident. She spent the next two weeks in the Chinese state-run Social Welfare Institute growing to love and understand more of her daughter's heritage than would have otherwise been possible.

    Though the insights she gained may only scratch the surface of the Chinese culture, they shaped her life as a wife, mother, friend and writer.

    Risher is an award-winning journalist and writer who went around the world to get from Mississippi to Louisiana-- with stops in between ranging from the mountains of Slovakia, the streets of Paris, a tribal village in Burkina Faso to the hills of central Mexico. The Mississippi native has made her home in Lafayette, Louisiana. since 2001. A columnist for Lafayette, Louisiana’s The Daily Advertiser and former managing editor of The Times of Acadiana, she's also the mother of two daughters, ages 13 and 9. She loves reading, cooking, entertaining -- and food in general.

    For more information, go to www.janrisher.com. The stories you are about to read are true. Risher is a frequent speaker at conferences and is available for public speaking engagements.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherJan Risher
    Release dateAug 2, 2011
    ISBN9781465819437
    Long Story Short: Year of the Water Goat
    Author

    Jan Risher

    Jan Risher went around the world to get from Mississippi to Louisiana-- with stops in between ranging from the mountains of Slovakia, the streets of Paris, a tribal village in Burkina Faso to the hills of central Mexico. The Mississippi native has made her home in Lafayette since 2001. A columnist for The Daily Advertiser and former managing editor of The Times of Acadiana, Jan is now works as a non-fiction ghostwriter and freelance magazine writer. She's also the mother of two daughters. She loves reading, cooking, entertaining -- and food in general.

    Related to Long Story Short

    Related ebooks

    Relationships For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Ashleigh Bryant Phillips

      Jun 10, 2020

      Ashleigh Bryant Phillips
      6 min read

    • Article

      The Mourners

      Jul 13, 2017

      I spent years of my life thinking I would be a member of a room like that by dying. That I would be the thing no one was talking about, all anyone was thinking. I spent years imagining what those rooms might be like with me not there. The post The Mo

      3 min read

    • Article

      Tell Children the Truth

      Sep 14, 2021

      Tell Children the Truth
      6 min read

    • Article

      On Verisimilitude

      Jun 18, 2020

      My husband tells me he feels reassured by the way the book preserves the memory of his father. I never intended my novel to carry this weight, but I am glad for it now. The post On Verisimilitude appeared first on The Millions.

      7 min read

    • Article

      A Year in Reading: Jen Gann

      Dec 19, 2018

      I sat my son back down and turned the compressor back on and we both turned back inward, to our screens filled with other people’s words. The post A Year in Reading: Jen Gann appeared first on The Millions.

      8 min read

    • Article

      Dispatches From the Trenches of Domestic Life

      Mar 2, 2018

      Six years ago my wife gave me a pair of house slippers. My first ever. A domestic present I thought signaled some new phase of my life. I thanked her. Tried them on. Plush fur lined the inside. I stood up to make a show of enjoying them. Then she han

      6 min read

    • Article

      Adopted In A WAR ZONE

      May 26, 2020

      Adopted In A WAR ZONE
      5 min read

    • Article

      The Ultimate Gift

      May 23, 2023

      The Ultimate Gift
      4 min read

    • Article

      Making Peace

      Mar 1, 2020

      Making Peace
      10 min read

    • Article

      I Followed My Mom To Prison And To A Degree

      May 25, 2018

      As I walked across the stage, I couldn’t believe I was finally graduating. I’d spent the past three years at St. Francis College in Brooklyn finishing my bachelor’s degree in Sociology. My family was in the crowd, screaming loudly. My mom and my gran

      5 min read

    • Article

      Letters from Cuba

      Jan 30, 2019

      Letters from Cuba
      13 min read

    • Article

      HOW I MET MY Mother

      May 25, 2020

      HOW I MET MY Mother
      5 min read

    • Article

      How Not to Be an Italian Mother

      Jan 26, 2018

      When I was 15, my family moved from the center of Rome to the outskirts of Los Angeles, in Van Nuys, to work in show business. I lived in the United States for 16 years after that. At 33 I was back in Rome and the mother of a newborn baby. I had a co

      5 min read

    • Article

      Protagonists

      Jun 18, 2021

      Was the craft of fiction around desire and obstacle taught by men and for men, for men protagonists and men readers? Was fiction part of the patriarchy? Was the craft of fiction part of the patriarchy? The answers were all yes. The post Protagonists

      7 min read

    • Article

      By Jessie Tu

      Dec 4, 2019

      My mother and I were born in the same country, though we don’t speak the same language. We migrated to Australia from Taiwan when I was four years old, and though we only spoke Mandarin at home, my vocabulary never expanded beyond that of a four-year

      5 min read

    • Article

      Rental Units

      Jan 10, 2024

      They sat beside each other on a striped towel and licked their orange creamsicles, like the ones my sister and I had eaten by the dozens when we were little. Their dirty blonde hair had turned to tangles in the swimming pool. I reached out and wiped

      11 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for Long Story Short

    0 ratings

    0 ratings0 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

      Book preview

      Long Story Short - Jan Risher

      Long Story Short: Year of the Water Goat

      An American mother returns to China

      by

      Jan Risher

      This electronic edition first published in 2011

      Jan Risher at Smashwords.

      Text copyright © Jan Risher 2011

      The moral right of the author has been asserted.

      All rights reserved

      No part of this publication may be produced or transmitted by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher.

      Smashwords Edition, License Notes

      This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not

      be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use

      only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy.

      Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

      Preface

      Long Story Short: Year of the Water Goat is a must read for anyone who has or is considering adopted internationally, especially from China. Columnist Jan Risher believes one of the most important aspects of international adoption is the embracing of a new culture and country for the adopting family as well.

      According to the Chinese zodiac, 2003 was the year of the water goat. It was a big year for newspaper columnist Risher and her family. They had just returned from China with a new baby girl at the end of 2002. By October in the year of the Water Goat, Risher was heading back to her youngest child's homeland to assist in starting an English program for the young adults too old to be adopted and remained in the orphanage where her daughter lived as an infant. Just outside the orphanage, Risher witnessed a young woman on a bike run over by a truck and the shocking aftermath of the accident. She spent the next two weeks in the Chinese state-run Social Welfare Institute growing to love and understand more of her daughter's heritage than would have otherwise been possible.

      Though the insights she gained may only scratch the surface of the Chinese culture, they shaped her life as a wife, mother, friend and writer.

      Risher is an award-winning journalist and writer who went around the world to get from Mississippi to Louisiana-- with stops in between ranging from the mountains of Slovakia, the streets of Paris, a tribal village in Burkina Faso to the hills of central Mexico. The Mississippi native has made her home in Lafayette, Louisiana. since 2001. A columnist for Lafayette, Louisiana’s The Daily Advertiser and former managing editor of The Times of Acadiana, she's also the mother of two daughters, ages 13 and 9. She loves reading, cooking, entertaining -- and food in general.

      For more information, go to www.janrisher.com. The stories you are about to read are true. Risher is a frequent speaker at conferences and

      Enjoying the preview?
      Page 1 of 1