Thank you SO much, Puppy and AG. Your advice is very helpful. I will draft an email tommorow morning as I am exhausted tonight. I just got home from work. I do think I am going to put the following message in there for here to pass along to the opposing counsel. Perhaps if his opposing counsel reads this, she may pass it along to my H, who has heard me say something similar.
"I love my husband and I want to give him the home so he can reside there. I do not want this divorce but I do want him to be happy, and if that means giving him what he wants, that I will do that (with conditions as far as monetary value are concerned)." Perhaps hearing someone else say it will allow him to let it sink in.
AG, I love your advice about being "business like with the H during settlement negotiations," and this will be a 180. But he will also be very respectful to me in front of others. He knows how to snow people but then becomes disrespectful behind closed doors. What do you think about either of these two ideas? "One suggestion is that we meet in front of a mediator. Another is that we meet with our attorneys."
My intent here is to slow this process down so that I can deal with these important legal and financial issues without letting my emotions run away with me. I can't seem to hide the fact that my H has had at least a year, and probably more, to let his emotions fade. I need that time to heal myself, and slowing down the process is an attempt at doing so.
Whichever one of you gave the suggestion that I have H draft up what he wants, is something along the lines of what I was thinking would be a good way to slow this process down. But if he does this, would that mean that we would not go to mediation? Would his draft take precedence over the conference/mediation? And if so, would that be a more productive way for me to *slow* the process???
