Well, it has been another year since I last posted about how things were going while we are slogging our way through this Chapter 13 bankruptcy. I have to say that sometimes things seem a little easier, but most of the time our life is a struggle. We are always coming up short. My husband and I have been working harder than ever and our income increased slightly due to my getting a raise last year. This may seem like a great thing, but it really just causes more anxiety because, you might have guessed it, our payment to the trustee will be going up. Two steps forward and about three back!
As far as the other things that have happened that I think are directly related to the stress of the bankruptcy, we are tenuously stable at the moment. The last year has not been without trouble. I have been in counseling and really do not sleep well. Our marriage is still rocky, but we are still together. Our children have been showing signs of stress as well, and now one of them has been put on antidepressants and is in counseling. I don't think lawyers and people who have never gone through something like this can truly understand how extremely difficult it is to continue life while trying to do the right thing and pay back as much debt as possible. We still do not go anywhere or do anything. Holidays and birthdays are a struggle. Summertime gets especially difficult because I work in a school, so there are no paychecks for me for three months. Many might say "Why don't you just get a summer job?" That is something I have considered but they are hard to and we would have to figure out transportation, and sometimes working at a minimum wage job ends up costing more than just staying home and working on the house and yard and regrouping for the next school year.
This journey has been rough and I don't expect it to get much better, but at least we are surviving and we both have jobs. Let's hope next year will start to look a little brighter.
