For the last 8 months I have been fighting with the father of my 2-year-old daughter to pay his court mandated child support. Last month when I informed him that I would be changing our daughters name to replace his last name with mine, he adamantly opposed the idea. Though he has had plenty of opportunity to visit with our daughter in a supervised environment, he has not seen her since she was 12-days-old. This was his choice. When I explained to him that the court would take this into consideration as well as his failure to pay child support, he replied by telling me he was sending what he could without starving himself.

During the last 8 months my life has changed dramatically. The dozens of court appearences ended in February. In one of those appearences,child support was finally assigned. I have landed the job of my dreams in a solid growing company. I am back in school and earning a degree that will hopefully one day release me from needing child support. I've moved my family from a mold infested home in Englewood to an adequate residence in Arvada (I say "adequate" because of the train tracks directly across the street and one of my neighbors parties until 4 am in the courtyard right outside my window). Outside of my meager financial situation due to the lack of child support, I've been experiencing the grace of God.

The final piece of this puzzle I've been trying to put together was placed last week when I opened my child support account just for the heck of it. I had to log out and back in five different times to make my eye's connect with my brain. The amount that the CSE had pulled out of the bank account of an almost starving man was over $10,000.

I'm paying off my school loans and a few debts I've been nickel and diming for the last two years. I went to the store and began stockpiling all of the nonperishable necessities every home needs. I took my kids to the Renascence Fair and they had the best time of their life. I paid 2 months of daycare and caught up all of my monthly bills. Last month we were on the verge of living in my car. There has not been a day to pass that I haven't thanked God and hugged my children. They say money can't buy happiness - it hasn't bought mine because I wascontent with the circumstances already presented to me in the last three months. It certainly has bought security. I don't know when I'll see another child support payment, but cleaning up my debt and eliminating the nickel and dime monthly payments is going to put me on the path to total independence. Thank you God. Thank you Child Support Enforcement. Thank you bloggers for allowing me to share both my burdens and my joy.