Thanks FIBS. My attorney and I talked long and hard about a custody fight. She's not a bad mother -- just a bad wife. I could have fought hard, ran up $15k in legal bills and would be unlikely to win.

She's offering less than what the court would order me to pay and I've got the girls about 40 percent of the nights and I'll see them 75 percent of the days.

So it's good in the grand scheme. Really, putting myself on a strict budget AND proving I could live on it really helped. I'm going to be fine -- in fact now that I don't have to put up with STBXW's crazy spending, I'll eventually be better than fine. I'll wonder why I put up with her cold hearted, wild spending craziness as long as I did.

The GALing is going better and better. I found a singles group through my church and they do things all through the summer and most of the activities are on weekends I am free. So now I have options. It's good to have options.

I'm not minimizing the affect on the kids. It'd be better if their mom could work through her depression issues and work on us. There's no doubt in my mind they are going to have lasting issues from this. I'll do my best to be there when they need me and in the end, STBXW is the one who'll have to deal with the guilt. I played a part, but I didn't end it.


Me: 47, Ds 17-13, D final 6-11
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