We were doing great. Then, after struggling with infertility, we turned to adoption. Adoption costs kept mounting and we did not want to drop the adoptions and lose what we did have invested and besides, we began the process for a reason. We began to use credit cards for daily expenses and save the money for adoption costs. During this process, lo and behold, I became pregnant. That was alright, we wanted a big family anyway. After delivering the baby, I took 6 weeks off work which decreased our income. After I went back to work, my husband left the country for a month to complete the adoptions. Again, our income was decreased and this time, expenses increased as well because he was staying in a hotel for a month and eating out. Once he brought the children home, I again took off work to help them adjust. Another loss in income. It has been 12 years and we are still struggling to pay off those credit cards. We were just making headway when our oldest son was in a plane crash. I took time off work to take care of him. Bills mounted. Fifteen months later, I was ill and could not work. Bills mounted. Another fifteen months later, our oldest daughter had surgery that left her unexpectedly paralyzed and in the hospital for a month. Yes, you guessed it. I was off work and the bills mounted. Not only did we have the everyday bills but they were increased by medical bills. It was so bad that credit cards did not get payments, monthly bills did not get paid, and food was getting scarce.
The kids are older now and we told them they had to pick up the slack at home so I could be available to work more. I kicked up my hours and worked a lot last summer. We got caught up on the monthly bills. We began paying off credit cards at Christmas. We are still working on them. We unloaded two timeshares by signing them back to the resorts but we are still behind on paying for two more. We owe more than ten grand at the dance studio. Now we have a bill to the government for taxes. I am trying to work more each payperiod and I hope to work about full time again this summer. During the summer, I will also have to save for my daughter’s tuition for college in the fall. I think I will need to set up a plan of how much to take from each paycheck and set it aside for the tuition while still paying off other bills. It will need to be $500 per paycheck. Wish me luck.