









Ok so look, I know this has been done to death, but hey, what are you going to do? I'm desperate.This is how it works, I give my sob story, you choose what you want to do. Point and laugh, help, whatever. I'm not going to make this out to be something it's not. It's a plea for help. I'm not looking to get rich. Far from it. I don't want to be rich. I just want to survive. And right now, well .. you get the picture.Ok, so my sob story.I'm 31. I grew up in another country but moved to the States because of a woman (yeah yeah. I've heard it before). When I was 20 I met a woman who I fell in love with. So I moved to the US. A year later, we had a kid. A beautiful girl. Seriously. Without my daughter, I would probably be curled up in a ball in a corner somewhere.So my wife moves to where I'm from for about a year just to get things in order, meaning following the proper procedure of dealing with getting a greencard for me and stuff, so I'm all legal and can work.After the year, we move back to the US.Just after we moved back, my wife finds out her grandmother (who was more like a mother to her) is dieing. Not long after, she passes.My wife hates me. I took her away from her grandmother for a year. Natural reaction. I don't blame her for hating me. She is grieving. She'll get through itSo anyways, about 2 months after that my kid was born, and my wifes little brother went into a group home, custody of the state (a different state from where we were living). For lack of a better description, he was being pimped out by his father to some old guy.The only way to get him out of the group home was to jump through a million hoops and become a foster parent. Yeah. So my wife and I found ourselves foster parents of her little brother. He was 16 at the time. Ok, so the state assists with the cost of being a foster parent. Sure. I heard that over and over. Problem was, going from one state to another caused all sorts of confusion (What?? Government-types confused? I know!) So here I am, away from the only home I've ever known, away from all family and friends, father to a newborn little girl, and "father" to a 16 year old teenage boy. Geez who signed me up for this??He lived with us for 3 years. I received one payment from the state. Grand total: 350$ weee.... that sure helps pay for a 16+ year old teenage boy!So whatever. Family. You do what you have to do right? Yeah. I thought so too. The bills didn't see it that way. Downhill we go!Life goes on, we struggle, the brother-in-law/foster-kid moves back to his hometown in another state. The wife blames me. I pushed him out. I didn't treat him like family, yadda yadda yadda. Meh. I did the best I could. Maybe I was a little harsh on him. I just wanted him to be the best person he could be. Blah. If it makes her feel better, I'll take the blame.26 years old, I get a call from my mother. My father has a brain tumor. He fights it, gets it removed, and all is good. (By the way, when a neuro-surgeon tells you "we want to take a little extra, just to be sure", it is apparently normal. Far be it for me to say "extra? What the hell. That's a damn brain! What extra are you talking about??")My wife and I drag our kid the 3000 miles to move in with my parents to help them recover. Hey, they paid for me for the first 20 years of my life, it's the least I can do. And my druggie/unemployed older brother certainly isn't going to do it.So my dad recovers quickly and goes back to work. My wife and I find out she is pregnant again. I send her and the kid back to the US where she can get some medical coverage. She moves to the city where her brother and mother live. With nowhere else to go, she moves in with an old friend. Incidentally, it's an old friend she used to sleep with. Ah well, she needs a place. She is pregnant. Yeah, not for long. Miscarriage.Life happens right? Yeah. It really sucks. So I finally get back to the states, and we find a place. By the time, I'm 28.My mother-in-law has no place to live, being in her 40's and not having had a real job (dumpster diving doesn't count. Does it?) in almost a decade.So life is going on and we are struggling to get by when the company I'm with downsizes. Job less. Oh joy. Even better? 2 weeks after my medical expires, I have gall stones AND kidney stones. The kidney stones I pass, and the gall stones are to bad. I have to have my gall bladder removed.I suppose it was quite telling at the time, but my wife dropped me off at the hospital then went out with the aforementioned friend she live with while I was still out of the country helping my family. When the surgery was done, she sent her mother to come and get me.A couple of weeks after that, she tells me she wants to split. Fine. Once again, shit happens, I suppose I wasn't the greatest of husbands. Certainly not the worst. So unfortunately, neither of us can afford to move out on our own, not to mention, there is a kid involved. So we continue living together. She has her room, I now live in the spare bedroom, and the kid has her own room.I'm working again by now. Great job that I really really love. But the cost of life, the recession, etc makes it a struggle.Then my mother calls again. My father collapsed. He's taken to the hospital for a crapload of tests. Apparently the collapse was just him feinting. Nothing serious. What IS serious is his breast cancer. Surgery, and chemo, and all that jazz.So, once again, life goes on. We struggle to survive. My wife starts playing an MMO. She now spends 5+ hours a night playing her game, talking to her friends through that.Just before Christmas, my old medical bills catch up to me and they start garnishing my wifes. Awesome. There goes 25% of my income. I have no one to blame but myself, of course. I can accept that. Nothing can be done about it except to pay it back. Once it's done, at least I have nothing more to deal with.So here we are to today. I've still got a couple grand to pay back for the garnishment, I've got bills piling up. I've got a wife who spends more time on the computer playing her video game (lol last Thursday was "her turn" to give the kid her bath. It was the first time it was her turn in 7 months. Tonight, she made dinner. First time in a year. And by "made dinner", I mean she microwaved some food).I work 17 hours a day. I try and spend about 3 hours a day with the kid. Playing games, puzzles, etc. Last night was 2 hours of Barbie :\I make sure I'm home every night to put her to bed, read her a bedtime story and sing her a lullaby. It kills me every morning when I drop her off at school and she cries because she is going to miss me. She made my wife a birthday card last week. Inside was a picture of me and the kid. My wife was on the back. My kid drew her sitting at the computer.Yet throughout the split, my wife keeps telling me she is going to be taking the kid to live with her. :(So I've got my beautiful little girl, I've got a wife whohates me, and who rarely talks to me, and who sleeps in a different room, and I've got a mother-in-law living in my garage. I've got my check being garnished, and bills piling up. I promised my kid that once "my pay goes back to normal" every Friday she and I will have "Daddy/Daughter Dinner Day". Burger King, McDonals, Arby's whatever. Something.So here it is. Like I said, I'm not looking to get rich, just a little help before I shoot myself (no, not literally) or keel over from the stress. Like I said, point and laugh, make comments calling me a loser, whatever floats your boat.If you feel so inclined, please help me get through the next couple of weeks and donate a little something. Whatever you want. Any amount helps. This is the last thing I wanted to do/try. I even signed up for one of those horrible credit cards that, once the fees are paid, will leave me 50$. money is money. I need to get my kid some food.So do your worst, or do your best. Whatever you want to do.Thanks