[john90430]

Hello to everyone here!

I apologize for introducing myself in such a negative light, but I do need help, and if this is truly a forum comprised of "Smart People," then surely someone will have some useful advice. I sorely need it!

I will do my best to condense my situation into as concise a story as possible.
Several years ago, my wife (and the mother of our two children) got involved in drugs. In hindsight, which is always 20/20, it was obvious. At the time, however, I didn't recognise it - I thought we were just drifting apart in our relationship, or that she was suffering a midlife crisis, or...
Around the first of this year, she announced she was quitting her job due to "office politics" and that she was instead going to work for/with her sister who is in real estate. I later discovered that she had been embezzling, that her supervisors had discovered it, and that she had been promised that she would be okay (not charged or prosecuted) if she resigned immediately.
Nevertheless, she has been charged, and indicted, and is awaiting whatever arrangement can be made between our attorney and the prosecutor. It doesn't look good, because she has a prior conviction of something similar from twenty-some years ago (long before we even met) which doesn't sit well with the prosecution.
Any savings we had have been used for Bail Bond and attorney fees.
Without income from her, the mortgage on the house is months behind because the monthly payments are way over my salary - foreclosure seems imminent, and the date of a tax-lien sale has come and gone. Car payments are behind as well. Her car is in reposession, I fear mine will be as well shortly. Many other creditors are calling, too many to list. Even my driver's license is under suspension, from unpaid parking tickets that my wife got because her car is registered in my name, and the money isn't there to pay the tickets.
I can't sell the house - it has no kitchen! We "gutted" it completely, just before all this happened, in anticipation of remodelling it.

I realise my part in this now. Steve's website has been instumental in my understanding that it was wrong for me to:
A.) Delegate all responsibility for the finances of the family to my wife, even though she all but demanded control from the beginning.
B.) Let the family be in the position where it relied on both of our incomes to survive, particularly with her income being the greater of the two.

Be that as it may, I am now in a situation that I find overwhelming. At the end of the day I am spiritually, mentally, and emotionally exhausted from all the worry associated with my situation. The kids and I eat a fast-food dinner because we have no kitchen, and not enough money for something better. I can't help them with homework - I just don't have the energy. I do some house cleaning and laundry and then drop into bed and pass-out.

What I need is some real-world advice, what to do to get out of this bind (these binds).

Can anyone out there help me?

Thanks,
John