Me and the Fam

I am 35 years old. I am a bi-racial female.  My mom is white (French, German, Irish) mix and my dad is Bajan (Barbados).  I have 5 kids. I adopted 4 kids when I was a single parent at age 24/25 when they were infants and they are now 10,9,9,9.  My 3 boys were born and adopted from Guatemala (I'll tell more about my Guatemalan adoption story later) and my daughter was born here in the States. I have a set of twins and my daughter is 3 months younger than the twins.  My belly baby is 13 months old. I got married 3 years ago, hence the age gap.

We live in Brookline, Massachusetts. I have lived all over Boston and grew up in a few rough neighborhoods including projects at one time.  My mom is originally from Southie. She grew up during busing when racial tension was high.  She actually tried to pass me off as a white baby when I was first born with my green eyes to avoid being called a "nigger lover".

Besides motherhood, which really is a full-time job into itself.  I have been a real estate developer since I bought my first property at 22.  I have done many condo conversion buildings, rental properties and a I did a pretty large HUD foreclosure deal a few years ago.  I now own and manage a bunch of rental units in Pittsburgh, Pa.  You can pick property up in some parts of this country, like Pittsburgh, fairly cheap and profit from the rental.

Throughout my 13 years in real estate I have learned many things about renovating, flipping and landlording.  I was a single-parent of 4 young kids throughout most of my time.   But, my biggest accomplishment was simply surviving the market crumble, completely unscathed.