2012: Glad to See You Go

2012 was a tough year. I am not generally one to look back on the negative things, but as I was thinking about this past year I realized that there were many difficult situations for us. There were many good things, but surrounding all of that was some very tough times for our family. I am sure that others can relate.

Our year started off with bad financial news. We had just returned from a wonderful Christmas break visiting relatives. After unloading the car, I started to sift through our pile of accumulated mail only to find a letter from a law group in Gaithersburg, Maryland. The letter informed me that by order of the Harford County Courts my pay was going to be garnished $300 a week.

After two years of paying the mortgage on two houses, we could no longer financial handle that. We had gone through all of our savings and even took some equity out of our Maryland home in order to keep paying until we could sell the home in Florida. The home appears to be unsellable for multiple reasons, namely that it no longer meets the new hurricane codes in Florida. Therefore nobody would be able to get home owners insurance coverage on the home if they bought it.

After lots of prayer and much consideration, we made the decision to stop paying on the Florida home and let it go back to the bank. The bank also does not want the home because they cannot sell it either. So we were sued in court for the full payment. Of course we lost. I told the judge that I do not deny the fact that we owe the money, we just had no means to pay it without also losing our home in Maryland.

Sadly the legal system found a way to ensure both. In their wisdom, since we were not paying for the home in Florida, they would garnish my wages to force payment. Without a large chunk of my salary each week we now could not pay for our home in Maryland. We had no money to pay a lawyer to fight for us, but we sought out one anyway. It cost us an entire weeks pay, but we made the only decision that seemed to make sense and declared bankruptcy on all of our debts...which was only our two homes.

We are now living in limbo, waiting for the bank to foreclose on our Maryland home and forcing us out. But since we are no longer paying for our mortgage we are able to save that money towards the cost of a future rental place. And it is a good thing that we had some savings again, because we had some other financial issues this past year: I had a root canal and a crown placed on for about $2300; Wendy has not been able to play the piano since June due to tendentious in both wrists and discovered that just because a doctor takes our insurance does not mean that he is in-network...at an expense of about $3000; and I discovered that having gallbladder surgery in a hospital which is in-network on your insurance does not mean that everyone who works on you is in-network...at the expense of about $300. All of those extra medical expenses may actually help come tax time since we will not have the mortgage interest and homeowner's insurance costs to deduct.

The end of my year has not been that great either. I spend most of December battling laryngitis and now I have bronchitis. Needless to say, even with the good things that did happen, I will be glad to leave 2012 behind me.