Inspirational Guide for Young Mothers With a Dream‏

Source: www.blackpr.com, www.blacknews.com

Philadelphia, PA (BlackNews.com) - FCS Books, a division of Family Care Solutions (FCS)--a nonprofit organization that promotes economic independence, educational awareness and social responsibility to improve the quality of life for families with children--releases its first book this fall to empower, inspire and educate Moms. Professor, May I Bring My Baby to Class? is a resource and guide to help young mothers navigate the obstacles blocking their dreams to pursue higher education.

Founder of Family Care Solutions and Author Sherrill W. Mosee encourages young mothers to take control of their destiny by completing their education. She guides them through the process and shows why higher education is important for both moms and their children. Professor, May I Bring My Baby to Class? includes compelling stories written by mothers who accepted the challenge of going to college while caring for their children, in spite of the odds stacked against them.

Meet Melissa, a young mother of four who left a troubled street life to return to school to make a better life for her family. Today, a student at the University of California at Berkley, Melissa now realizes the unlimited possibilities that lay at her feet with a college education. "After getting through my first semester, I realized that school wasn't that bad, and I could do it...This is dope homie; I'm sold," she says.

Professor, May I Bring My Baby to Class? also includes information about colleges and universities that offer on-campus child care, housing for women with children, financial aid, and other support services for student-parents plus tips and resources to help readers on their journey to graduation day. They will also be able to chronicle their own story, challenges, triumphs and dreams in a handy journal.

Professor, May I Bring My Baby to Class? would be a great inspirational gift and resource to any Mom with a dream to pursue higher education. For more information about the book or how to pre-order it, visit www.fcsbooks.com Family Care Solutions, a nonprofit organization that promotes economic independence, educational awareness and social responsibility to improve the quality of life for families with children, is the only community-based agency in Philadelphia which offers child care assistance to help eliminate the financial barrier of the high cost of child care for student-parents in higher education.

College is an option when you have children...It may be harder, but it can be done! I am living proof! (thanks to www.strayer.edu)

Shark Tank - Entrepreneurs - ABC.com

Shark Tank - Entrepreneurs - ABC.com

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Free Book-Act NOW!

Download Colum McCann's irresistible new novel, Let the Great World Spin for free until 10:59 a.m. ET Wednesday August 5, 2009. We're offering this book as a free download for Oprah.com members. If you already are an Oprah.com member, click on the link below to log in and you'll be redirected to download the book. If you are not a member, click on the link below and you will be prompted to become a member. It's free!

http://www.oprah.com/article/oprahsbookclub/readinglists/pkgsummerreading/200907-omag-book-download-2

Synopsis: About the Book: In the dawning light of a late-summer morning, the people of lower Manhattan stand hushed, staring up in disbelief at the Twin Towers. It is August 1974, and a mysterious tightrope walker is running, dancing, leaping between the towers, suspended a quarter mile above the ground. In the streets below, a slew of ordinary lives become extraordinary in bestselling novelist Colum McCann’s stunningly intricate portrait of a city and its people.Let the Great World Spin is the critically acclaimed author’s most ambitious novel yet: a dazzlingly rich vision of the pain, loveliness, mystery, and promise of New York City in the 1970s.Corrigan, a radical young Irish monk, struggles with his own demons as he lives among the prostitutes in the middle of the burning Bronx. A group of mothers gather in a Park Avenue apartment to mourn their sons who died in Vietnam, only to discover just how much divides them even in grief. A young artist finds herself at the scene of a hit-and-run that sends her own life careening sideways. Tillie, a thirty-eight-year-old grandmother, turns tricks alongside her teenage daughter, determined not only to take care of her family but to prove her own worth.Elegantly weaving together these and other seemingly disparate lives, McCann’s powerful allegory comes alive in the unforgettable voices of the city’s people, unexpectedly drawn together by hope, beauty, and the “artistic crime of the century.” A sweeping and radical social novel, Let the Great World Spin captures the spirit of America in a time of transition, extraordinary promise, and, in hindsight, heartbreaking innocence. Hailed as a “fiercely original talent” (San Francisco Chronicle ), award-winning novelist McCann has delivered a triumphantly American masterpiece that awakens in us a sense of what the novel can achieve, confront, and even heal.

I love to read, don't you? Especially if it is free! Thanks to Oprah's book club!
Source: Oprah's Book club: www.oprah.com

Teaching Children About Death

The death of Michael Jackson really blew me away. I was trying to come home a couple of days after the awful train wreck in DC which killed nine people. It was awful and I was trying to get used to taking another route home.

I have a cell phone that does not work underground. So when my train finally pulled into the train stations that are outside, my phone rang. It was my ten-year old son.

He was crying a little. I asked him what is wrong. He said, "Mom, you didn't hear? Michael Jackson died!"

I stopped right in my tracks and was wondering why everyone on the platform was eagerly texting on their Blackberries or I-phones. It hit me, "Nah, another rumor, they're always messing with Michael."

So that's what I told him, "No, it's a rumor." And I told him to put my friend on the phone. When he got on the phone he said, "Jada, it's true, Michael Jackson died of a heart attack." Stunned, I told him I was on my way, but I worried what both of my sons were hearing on the tube since I knew how much they loved watching Michael Jackson on TV. Not the way the awful tabloids always presented him.

Trying to get over the shock, it was hard not to. Splattered all over the news, Michael Jackson's death was a tidal wave riding throughout the entire world just like his beloved music. I was hurt, but my other son was even more hurt.

With the creation of the Internet and clever sites like youtube, my son has always viewed at least one Michael Jackson video per day. Me, too...

The day Michael Jackson died, my son was watching Beat It! Then to hear on the news an hour later that he was dead, was unreal to my kids. So I can only imagine how Michael's kids were feeling.

I know how they felt, because at age 11, I lost my mother. I didn't understand why, couldn't understand and really didn't want to. In my little world, she was the only person that ever loved me. I can only imagine Michael's kids felt the same way.

When my mother died, no one sat me down and really explained the death of my mother. All I knew was that I had to wear a white dress at my mother's funeral, some Down South tradition. I wondered why my mother's face was cold? Was she going to wake up? Why didn't she at least call me to say goodbye, I'm leaving for a while...And on and on and on...

When I heard Jermaine Jackson's interview with Matt Lauer, he said something that struck out at me. Heavily. He said they took the children to see their father because it would help them understand better. I agree with him. Had my family taken me to see my mother beforehand, I don't think I would have gone through several years of unanswered questions later on in my adult life.

When I saw Paris Jackson outpour her heart in front of her father's casket, I cried right along with her. I knew what she was feeling. But I knew how brave she was. When I kissed my own mother goodbye, no one gave me the chance to say anything about her.

I explained the details to my sons about death. No I don't know exactly where we go when we die, but I do believe in heaven because I am a Christian. It is hard to fathom what the Bible teaches about heaven, because no one can come back and tell of its greatness.

I overheard someone criticize Michael Jackson stating, "Michael sold his soul to the devil." I beg to differ! But I tried not to get caught up in that madness. What matters is that three children have lost their father, which children do go through everyday, but this was too much. When I heard Paris say, "My father..." She didn't say, "My pop icon father..." She knew what he meant to her in her heart.

Age 11 is a critical age to lose a parent. Tween years are difficult. Heck, all of the child's years are difficult as they try to find a place in the world. It is important that we teach our children about fear, death, whatever form of heaven you believe in as well as the intracacies of this world. We cannot sugarcoat and nursery rhyme everything, because it is not possible.

I know Michael was a good father. Whether or not he had them or not, so what? They were his children. They have his tendencies. Good hearted and kind. I don't care what the tabloids or even some news stations are saying, that's hogwash.

I hope the children will be able to maintain normal lives, but this is only wishful thinking. Let us all teach our children that forever on earth is not promised, but do so in a way that they will understand.

For more information, please visit: http://www.trauma-pages.com/s/perrylos.php, http://www.missfoundation.org/kids/index.html, www.willmarcenter.org/


For more of Michael's legacy, please visit: http://healtheworld.us/members/htwf

His music: www.michaeljackson.com and here: http://www.allmichaeljackson.com/index.html and here: http://community.guinnessworldrecords.com/_Michael-Jackson-dies-at-50/blog/407707/7691.html

Adoption and the Single Mother

When I heard that pop star Madonna was finally granted an adoption to an adorable 4-year-old girl named Chifundo “Mercy” James, I was happy for her. Controversy has swirled around the pop star from other South African would be adopters citing, "Madonna is getting privilege to adopt because she is rich."

I was stunned at those comments. I mean, if Mercy's father, who claims he has not seen the child since the mother died (she was a teenage mother by the way), and really wanted to care for the child, wouldn't he have at least made an attempt to get Mercy? Why wait until Madonna wants to adopt her? He claims that Mercy's maternal side blocked him from adopting her...

Well anyway, courts in South Africa ruled and Mercy will be going home to live with Madonna and the rest of her family in NYC, or wherever she wants to.

Which is the point of this posting...

There are some women who cannot have children and adoption is the choice for them. I have no problem with that as long as one can take care of a child. Single Mothers By Choice an organization fully committed to those that want to care for a child by choice. They stake their claim here:

"A single mother by choice is a woman who decided to have or adopt a child, knowing she would be her child's sole parent, at least at the outset. Typically, we are career women in our thirties and forties. The ticking of our biological clocks has made us face the fact that we could no longer wait for marriage before starting our families. Some of us went to a doctor for donor insemination or adopted in the United States or abroad. Others accidentally became pregnant and discovered we were thrilled."

I am thrilled, too. Just like it doesn't bother me if a gay or lesbian couple wants to adopt a child. As long as they can provide for the child, why not? Instilling good values to have that child grow up in a loving family is all that matters.

Why all the controversy over adopting by single mothers? Because according to the US Census Bureau, there are approximately 13.6 million single mothers raising children alone. That counts for at least 21.2 million children being raised without a father. So yes, as a single person thinking about adoption, you need money...

So I don't knock Madonna for adopting children, she is filthy rich and can do it. I don't knock Oprah who opened a school in South Africa for impoverished girls, calling them her "daughters", and I daggone sure do not knock the gay and lesbian community to reach out and adopt children. After a non-adopted child turns 18, they are on their own.

So no, I don't knock this at all. Go 'head Madonna!

But if you're a single woman and want to adopt because of not being able to conceive, or you just want to adopt versus conceive, do know the steps are plenty. It can be done though. Keep a straight and narrow record, work history and rental and/or homeownership history. And you need money. For more information on adopting, visit, www.adopting.org.

Good Luck!

Scholarships for Moms-Deadline June 15th

Hurry!!! If you want to go back to school, there is a contest for a scholarship for mothers. Always wanting to look out for my single mother friends, please visit: http://www.scholarships4moms.net. You owe it to yourself to go back to school or save the money to send your child to school! Going back to school will make you more marketable, stronger and powerful! I am happy to have completed my degree online and you can do the same. Check it out: http://www.scholarships4moms.net and do not forget to start your financial aid package here: http://www.fafsa.gov. This is the Federal Student Aid website where you can apply for pell grants, student loans and other grants. Let me know how you're doing or if you need help with the process!

Good Luck!

Make some money writing online-Part 1

I know several single mothers who work two jobs. Heck, I know some that work three jobs. I don't know how we do it. I tried working a second job one time, but with school still winding down, I just couldn't find the energy to do this.

That's where technology steps in. There are several ways for the single mother population to make money while at home. It takes time yes, but if you stick with it, results will follow.

1) Blogging-My own blog is a sample for beginners. Utilize blogger.com to start your own blog about a topic (s) you love. Begin to monetize your blog by adding ads and links to affiliated products that you sell outside of your blog. Visit Problogger.net for more information. Set up an account at google adsense.

2) Write for associatedcontent.com. They are my favorite! I have made friends on here, can post my articles, research papers and reviews that are at least 500 words. I have made as much as $4-10 per article. Not bad for pumping out a few articles in a couple of weeks, gaining some extra cash for something that had to get pushed to the back burner (movies, shoes, etc.)

3) One that I have not explored yet is families.com This is a site that allows you to write about family topics and with us being single mothers, there is lots to blog about since we do just about everything.

I will be conducting these posts into a series this month, so stay tuned. Don't fret over the summer, (recession) and get started. There's something for everyone on the net to make money!