The day I went into labor the owners of the paper I was the editor of called to tell me we were bankrupt. “Maybe you didn’t hear me, I explained to one of the owners, “but I am in labor. “I know, she answered, “it’s really exciting, but could you email all of the writers and tell them we aren’t going to print the December issue? I was a bit preoccupied, and busy, on that day, so I didn’t fully comprehend the enormity of the situation. But about a week later I sat in a rocking chair nursing my son and thought, “In one day I became a mother and unemployed. What the hell do I do now?

Although I thought a lot about finding another job as an editor, actually applying for a job was another matter. Fatigue, a depressed economy, and lack of motivation were only a few of the barriers in my way. I considered it a productive day if I managed to take a shower and brush my teeth before three p.m., so I wasn’t sure how valuable of an employee I was going to be. Not to mention, I wasn’t sure I wanted to be an employee. My previous job as an editor allowed me to work from home so I had, perhaps falsely, assumed I could continue working and be the primary care giver of my son. My visions of motherhood had always included working and being a mother, but day-care was never part of that vision. I was starting to realize that I might not be able to have my cake and eat it too.

Adele Ngoy pauses while hemming a pair of slacks in the workroom of her boutique, Fladel Couture in Portland, Maine, and considers what it means to be a woman. She is dressed for the fashion business, in black slacks and tasteful gold jewelry, wearing a blouse which adorned a shop mannequin a week earlier. Adele speaks in measured English, the fifth of a five language fluency, her words heavily accented by her Congolese heritage. "For me... I am happy to be a woman, and I love it. Because, there [is] something special in being a woman. Being a mother. Caring for people, for your children, and [having] that... féminité. I like to be a woman, I’m happy to be a woman... caring, giving."

Our condolences to Katie Allison Granju and her family this memorial day for the loss of her beautiful son to a drug overdose and brutal assault. Henry Louis Granju 1991-2010. http://bit.ly/a3uBHc

Katie -- I am so sorry for your loss.
--Susan

I am a thirty-one year old mother of an almost-three-year old. My partner and I and our son moved to the Netherlands from Boston two years ago. It was very much my idea, and for me it was very much about not wanting to raise my son with the constant anxieties about health insurance that I had experienced for years (thank you Aetna! I had to call you so often that you were #1 on my T-Mobile “top 5”! I wish I were kidding!).

McNeil Consumer Healthcare, Division of McNEIL-PPC, Inc., in consultation with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), is voluntarily recalling all lots that have not yet expired of certain over-the-counter (OTC) Children’s and Infants’ liquid products manufactured in the United States and distributed in the United States, Canada, Dominican Republic, Dubai (UAE), Fiji, Guam, Guatemala, Jamaica, Puerto Rico, Panama, Trinidad & Tobago, and Kuwait. The list of medications recalled includes (but is not limited to) tylenol, benadryl, motrin, and zyrtec. For more information, visit the recall details page.

"Ok, smile, Mom!"

High Schooler, then a middle-schooler, was standing at street level holding my snazzy new camera phone. I threw up my hands and grinned while standing on the second floor overhang of the house I'd owned for two hours.

The "first time home buyer" surveys online seemed like harmless fun. Stop Paying Rent! Let Your Tenants Pay The Mortgage. I assumed that wasn't possible, but occasionally filled out a survey as though it were a fluffy quiz that would tell me if I were Hermit, Girl Next Door or Party Animal. With my credit card debt, marital history, and low-paying job divided by current number of mouths to feed, I figured all of the houses out there were safe from me.

Sixteen dancers come on stage carrying gold canes and arrayed in reds, blues, purples and pinks with jingling coin hip scarfs. They are all races, shapes and sizes, but they are not all ages: the oldest is eleven and the youngest is four. This is Happy Hips Youth Oriental Dance Troupe, veteran belly dancers who have performed at benefits, museums and festivals as well as local and regional haflas, the term for belly dance parties or shows.

Happy Hips founder, Terri Allred did not set out to become Sadiya, professional belly dancer and instructor. At Vanderbilt University, she completed a theological studies masters in feminist theology with a focus on how people who experience trauma interpret it and give it meaning. Terri ran rape crisis centers and lectured internationally on the relationship between sexual violence and belief systems.