Paying Child Support for two Children who live with us!!!!

by Nancy Olson
(Brentwood, CA)

Four years ago my two stepchildren decided to live with us. We live in California and my husband made an agreement with his ex to give her a certain amount each month.

This was not done through the courts and my husband had a court order to pay a certain amount of child support per month and it did not change based on his income or his two children coming to live with us. The state of Texas began garnishing his wages. Sometimes we would get a paycheck for $0. At the time, I had an 18 month old son and was pregnant with my second child. I was seven months pregnant looking for a job. Nobody would hire a pregnant woman. In the meantime, his ex-wife refused to work.

His ex-wife took this money, saying that he owed it to her. This was for ONE CHILD and we had two of her children living with us. My husband was paying for FOUR children, the oldest had moved in with her boyfriend's family.

The Attorney General's Office did NOTHING to aid my husband, saying that he could only change it through the courts. WE HAD NO MONEY...IT WAS ALL BEING TAKEN FROM US. There were six of us crammed in a dumpy two bedroom apartment. We had no money to pay for a lawyer. This went on for a year!!! My husband's parents finally gave him the money and he filed for custody and lowered his child support payments and had all of his past due amount forgiven.

Now, he has lost a huge chunk of his salary, we have ABSOLUTELY NO MONEY to pay a lawyer to change it. I have THREE SMALL children. All this time, my husband's ex has NOT BEEN REQUIRED to pay any child support. Our income tax return will be going to her. All this time she has had only one child who is now twelve. I need to go to work to help support HER CHILDREN.

So now, where does this leave us? My husband will not contact the Attorney General's office because of their rudeness to him the first time and their refusal to help the 'NON-CUSTODIAL' parent and hide behind the court order. Why will they not help my husband when they seemed to bend over backwards for his ex-wife? We can't even afford an airline ticket right now for him to fly out there. So tell me, with no money and the Attorney General's office stacking up his unpaid amounts, where does that leave us? We still live in California and now we are a family of seven with my two stepchildren still living with us.