Just got bad news...we should have expected this but for some reason we were in la-la land.

Fiance gets a hefty tax return every year because he works a ton of overtime. He also gets a profit sharing bonus in February. This year, he gets to also claim his son, SS3 (they flip-flop years to claim him). He was anticipating a total sum of at least $7,000 with all of this.

I will not receive any pay at all during my maternity leave (fast approaching -- I'm due in 5 weeks!) and we were really counting on the extra money from DF's taxes and bonus. I'll be lucky to get $600 back on my taxes, so that'll barely be a help.

Here's the news: DF still owes back pay to BM. Their lawyers took their merry time with writing up a stipulation (his lawyer SUCKED and would take a month to change one word in it and get it sent to him so he could sign it, and hten there'd be something else wrong with it and the process would start over) so he had no choice but to build up backpay because they wouldn't take anything from him and his lawyer actually recommended that he not pay anything during that time. We knew that would be taken from his taxes this year, but he thought it was around $4,000 that he owed so we'd atleast have a nice $3,000 or so left to help us make it through maternity leave. He called the Child Support Agency and they told him he still owes $6,000. We're REALLY freaking out now...

Here's another thing that sucks and goes to show you what a nice guy my DF is. I can't believe how dumb he was. When he and BM got together, her daughter was only a few months old (I call her SD5 now). DF actually PAID for SD5's day care for THREE YEARS. That's $500/month for THREE YEARS. that's $18,000!!!!! Of course, it was "out of the goodness of his heart" because he had no legal obligation to do so, so the courts don't care. Oh and let's add on the fact that we still take SD5 with absolutely no compensation from BM (and not so much as a thank-you) for two days a week.

Don't get me wrong, I completely understand the need for back-pay. I know that BM wasn't getting paid during the lawyer time and that she deserves to have that back. It just SUCKS the way they do it (all out of taxes) without a care for what else is going on in your life (like having a new baby). And it was just a bit of a shock to us as we were really counting on that help. I'm not sure what we're going to do.

And it sucks that it's just one more instance of us feeling burned by BM because of all the stuff with SD5.

We want to ask BM if she can part with at least $1,000 for costs incurred in the last years for taking her daughter... I know she doesn't HAVE to and certainly could sya NO WAY, but maybe out of the "goodness of her heart" she will....

Oh, or maybe she'll just pay for our kid's day care for 3 years? }:) -- Totally kidding...but man I wish she had to in return!