All posts tagged "Blendedfamilies"

CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- Karen McGirt was barely making it as a young, single mom in Charlotte decades ago with three children. Her part-time job was hardly earning enough to pay monthly expenses. More often than not, McGirt had to decide whether to pay the electric bill or provide food for her children. She also was a trade school student. “I had to find a second wind with each new challenge to finish what I set out to accomplish,” she said. More than 30 years after graduating from Harding University High School — much of it working as a bus driver or in a salon — the 48-year-old mom will cross the......

Yulanda and Jerome Bearden were ready to give up. They’d moved with their five children into a Hayward, California, homeless shelter, and felt like their life had hit the “lowest of the lows.” But two years later, the Beardens stood in their kitchen, surrounded by boxes of candy and sprinkles. Enveloped in the smell of warm caramel, they marveled at how much has changed. Not only are they stably housed, now they’re entrepreneurs selling candy apples and other treats to a quickly expanding base of sweet-toothed customers. “We came from the bottom,” Yulanda said, after selling out of candy over ......