contents -- Foreword, Rebecca Walker xi -- Yvonne Bynoe * Introduction 1 -- Marla Teyolia * Living in the Third Sphere 11 -- Jasmine Dawson * To My Unborn Children 17 -- Amy Kalisher * Starter Child 27 -- Kelly Jeske * A Shade Called Mama 37 -- Marcella Runell Hall * Growing Pains 51 -- Sonali S. Balajee * Namaste Revisited 59 -- Kim Green * In the Absence of Blood 73 -- Tanika L. Feaster * A True Testimony 81 -- JLove Calderón * Movement Mamis: A Day in the Lifeof a Hip-Hop Activist Mami 93 -- Asata Reid * Childcare Is Caring for Children 101 -- Lisa Chiu * Where We're From, Where We're Going 115 -- Meilan Carter * Four Pushes 123 -- Kathy Briccetti * The Baby Bank 129 -- Lori L. Tharps * Colorblind: The Very True Story ofa Woman Who Didn't Notice Her Sons Were Different Colors 141 -- Liz Prato * Is Life without Kids Worth Living? 147 -- Pat D. Jean * Perpetual Choices 153 -- Mary Warren Foulk * Which One's the Mother? 161 -- Chris Murphy * Mommy Maybe . . . 177 -- Kersha Smith * No Kitty Crack, Leather Diaper Bags,or Little Black (White) Babies 189 -- Eileen Flanagan * A Pellet of Poison: I Don't Wantto Feed Racism to My Children the Way My MotherFed It to Me 195 -- Charisse Carney-Nunes * Walking Your Talk 205 -- Rebecca O'Connell * Sounds Like a Plan 219 -- Robin Templeton * The Mother I Always Wanted 229 -- Martha Southgate * An Unnatural Woman 239 -- Heather McCary * Growing into a Woman and a Mommy: How I Came to Be a Mother 245 -- Lorraine Rice * The Sex Goddess and the Mama 259 -- Rha Goddess * Immaculate Conception 265.