My cousin in Louisiana started a small company with a little savings, renovating houses. A single mom, she saved enough to buy a home and provide child care for her son. When the economy went belly up, so did her company. She was forced to sell her home and move in with her parents.

I was born to a single mom and raised by her and my grandparents.

This isn't the life I thought we'd have, my love. This isn't the way I thought we'd be living, my dear. This isn't the way things were supposed to happen, my angel. But yet here we are. Here we are still smiling. Here we are still laughing. Here we are still loving. Here we are still learning. Here we are together. The way I knew it would be. I have you. And you my dear, will forever have me.

Rent and the cost of essentials like food and child care are rising so fast that wages are not keeping up.

I'm not sure anyone - and I could be wrong in this - grows up thinking, I want to be a single mom.

My mom, for all intents and purposes, was a single parent.