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How you can tell you've made it - this statement varies from person to person. For some, it is defined by monetary wealth and for some with the attaining of a certain position within their work place, but for me, my moment came last week when my son graduated from high school 10th in a class of 400. This day was the culmination of 18 years of sweat equity, overcoming hardships and stepping out of my own childhood misfortune, thereby allowing him to succeed, which in turn allowed me to succeed.

Many years ago I was told that I could never conceive a child. Because of this I thought I would never marry, as surely there would be no one out there who would want a barren wasteland such as me. Not so - I met and married a great guy who thinks I hung the moon. Who could have guessed? Surely not I. I grew up in a dysfunctional family with me being the proverbial black sheep. Although I succeeded in employment, I never could quite get the social aspect of my life "right" until I met and married my husband. He moved me from my home state away from my birth family and all the dysfunction they brought to my life. In doing so I changed careers and lo and behold became pregnant with our son! Petrified, as I had never anticipated this event, I started to read every child rearing book I could get my hands on. After the birth of our son, my husband's workplace was undergoing a transition from private ownership to state ownership and I was on unpaid maternity leave, placing us in a very precarious financial situation. We had little savings, barely squeaking by, so to speak. So, what did we do - we moved! My husband went back to contracting in IT and I was suddenly thrown into the position of a stay at home mom, caring for a 3 month old in an area where I knew no one. I tried to find part time employment but the MI economy was already trending downward, so this was just an insurmountable task. Once again, we were eating into our already meager savings in order to function on a daily basis. This time, we decided to make the BIG move. My husband was offered a position in VA with the offering company actually paying our moving costs. We, again, were leaving for uncharted waters but excitedly so.

We moved into a townhouse (the nicest place we had lived thus far) in what we thought was a nice neighborhood. Unfortunately this was what people consider a neighborhood "in transition," not the place to raise a young child, so after a year with my husband

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