She's a mother on a mission. To make life easier for single parents. So she has created a Web site designed to help in three ways.

The site – www.forsingleparents.com – is an interactive database where single moms and dads can plug in their ZIP codes and see who else in their general vicinity needs a roommate, help with child care or companionship.

Those are the big three in the lives of parents trying to raise children on their own, Ladd says.

She recalled her experience, on her own with 11-month-old Erin after the marriage fell apart. The two of them in a one-bedroom apartment, she trying to work, wanting to go to school to improve their future, doing all she could to be sure they both survived.

"Single parents are the worst when it comes to money," she says, with a laugh. "Usually because we don't have any."

But this is a strong – and determined – woman.

"I was desperately trying to do it on my own," she says, "but I couldn't do it."

So she did what many single parents do: put an ad in the paper for a roommate. She laughs as she describes going through eight of them.

"It's very difficult to be around children when you don't have any," she says. "I think I scared a lot of people out of having children."

She tried one more time. And Debbie, another single mom, answered the ad.

"Each of us had been living in a one-bedroom apartment with our daughters."

They pooled their resources, got a three-bedroom place that cost each of them less than their former cramped quarters, put their girls in a room together and, for the first time in years, Ladd remembers, she had a real room, too, instead of a bed in the living room.

"She and I are still best friends," Ladd says. But they don't share an apartment anymore. "She wound up marrying a friend of mine!"

Mock anger aside, Ladd says the experience was a blessing in many ways.

The two moms kind of financially supported each other by sharing expenses. Erin and Rachel enjoyed a sibling relationship neither would otherwise have had. And the women had adult companionship.

"Single parents get so isolated," Ladd says, "your companion is a 2-year-old. You don't have anyone to talk to."

Now, she wants to use the Internet to help other single parents find that peace of mind. Just off the ground, it will take patience by those first people to sign up as members of the site. They won't find the help they need right off the bat, but as more join, the idea is that those ZIP codes will be gold mines of resources for these families.

There is no charge to use the Web site for the service, unless you want to take advantage of the FBI background check that's offered for $26 to see if a potential roommate or child-care provider has a criminal record. She sees the site, made possible by a friend's generous financial support to get it started, as a sort of necessary evil.

"There are always going to be single parents," she says, quietly. "I wish there weren't, but there will be."

And she hopes to help them gain the peace of mind she found all those years ago.