So Mom was taking the Bio-father to court. Well finally in February 1998 (this started in Sept of 1997) we were awarded 50% of my tuition after any financial aid (student loans, grants, scholarships) for 5 full years as I was wanting to get my CPA and you need 5 years in college to do this. His only thing was that the check be made out to me, so he knew it was going to my college tuition. Fine! Woohoo! I was getting my college paid for.
He showed up (drove all the way out to our house) to give me the first installment of my college money. He hugged me and started crying. I stood there straight as a board. I had many walls up because I now knew what all he was capable of and I wasn't going to allow myself to get drawn back in. He started saying crap about my mom. I don't remember what exactly was said by him, but it hit me hard and I struck right back. I told him that he was in the wrong and that he should never talk about my mom like that again, that she was the one that was always there for us while he was the one that came and went as he pleased. That we would go 2 years without hearing from him. That he missed all the important moments because he was "too afraid" of my mom being there. I even informed him that mom had never said a bad word about him to us for all of our 18/19 years and we had made up our own minds about him.
Little did I know our living room window was open a crack, so mom had heard every little bit of what I said to him. Did I have to stand up to him for my mom? No, Mom can handle herself very well, but the truth of the matter is, is whether Mom and I were getting along or not at that moment or any moment, no one gets to say crap about her to me because she gave up a lot for us. She starved so we could have more. She wore clothes that didn't fit or were torn up so that we could have what we needed. She sacrificed money for her retirement and vacations so that I could go to college or to help my brothers and sister.
So the checks came once a semster, but now they came by mail instead of being hand delivered. It worked for a while. Then I screwed up. Yes, me, I failed out of NIU. I know, how can a straight A student suddenly fail out of school? I'm not quite sure I could pin point what happen. Mom assumes I partied too much and didn't do enough studying. That wasn't really the case. I only went out on weekends. I guess I didn't have enough going on that I just let my homework go because there was always later, plus I never learned to study because throughout HS I never cracked a book. I was like a sponge.
I came home and went to CLC (community college) to get my associates degree. I could've done it all in 1 semester except I never got the bill to pay and was never told when it needed to be paid by, so next thing I knew I got a letter saying I had been dropped from all my classes. As I resigned up 1 of the classes I needed was full, so I had to wait another semester to take that. Anyway, I had written Bio-father a letter telling him that I had screwed up and was going to CLC. That since it was my screw up I would pay for this year of college, but would expect to see the support come back when I went back to a 4 year school. I kept him in the loop. When I found out I was getting my associates degree I decided to walk because there was a lot for me to celebrate. I was getting my butt back in gear and had picked a better school for me. I wrote to him again and let him know the date and time for my graduation, the school I was going to and how much it would be and what his portion would be.
Well, he decided to try to fight us again over my tuition money.
TO BE CONTINUED (wow didn't know this would get so long)
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