Divorce - Not for the Faint of Heart

Having just wrapped up what feels like the longest event in my life I am feeling a bit reflective, as well as mentally and physically exhausted. Its certainly not something I would recommend anyone proceed into without a lot of thought and some research. The events that have occurred in my life over the last 2 years have been quite exhausting to say the least. But then, like every thing else, I guess I don't do divorce calmly and quietly either.

From beginning to present this ordeal has proven to be an exercise in patience and restraint. I ended up retaining 2 attorneys to handle the case - one in VA and one in SC. My VA attorney is a partner in a fairly large firm. Therefore, he had associates at his disposal to handle some of the tasks of the case. That was much kinder to my wallet than him handling it all. I would be remiss if I did not add that the bulk of the patience and restraint were on the part of my VA attorney. He (and the associate that did the most work on my case) talked me down daily and kept me from doing several really stupid things. Guess they are worth their huge hourly fees. I was also pleased with the work my SC attorney did, which is a good thing because I am sure the ex and I will end up back in court due to his inability to read and comprehend the Court Custody Order .

Once all is said and done, I will have spent much more on this legal exercise than I did on my entire college education. Its actually fairly depressing to add up the bills and I have had to borrow to pay them. I'm fairly certain the ex's legal bills are nowhere near the amount that mine are. Thankfully my attorneys have proven to be worth every dime I have paid them.

The ex actually just sent the final of the lump sum payments to me last week. Amazingly enough, it arrived on time. So, aside from the support payments he deposits into the bank account and seeing him once a month for a visitation exchange of our child I am done with him. Well, until I've had enough of him breaking the Visitation order and take him back to court that is.