"Bankruptcy After A Divorce"

When my husband and I decided to divorce, it was a very painful and emotionally stressful time for both of us.

He made a personal decision that it would be best for him to leave Delaware where we had resided during out marriage and return to Iowa to live with his family, agreeing to leave me and the children to occupy our marital home. He was not going to be able to help me financially since he was starting a new life.

Since I was going to be solely responsible for the house payments, we determined that the best financial course of action would be for me to file personal bankruptcy so that I would be able to make the monthly mortgage payments without any financial problems. Although there was not a substantial amount of family debt it would be too much for me to pay on my single salary and still be able to pay the entire mortgage payment.

Since all the debt that was outstanding was in my name only a personal bankruptcy was the obvious but embarrassing answer.

The bankruptcy proceeded smoothly with a good local attorney. I did feel very guilty when the attorney told me to stop making monthly bill payments - I had never missed bill payments before in my life.

My husband and I filled out all the necessary paperwork and the attorney accompanied me to the Federal Court where I stood before a judge. Before I knew it, the entire process had been completed and I received paperwork in the mail.

After the bankruptcy had gone though and I felt relieved with the knowledge that I would be able to support my children and keep our family home, initially I still felt ashamed about reneging on my loan obligations. Eventually the shameful feelings faded as I was able to continue on with my life without the burden of the debts my husband and I had acquired during our life together.

It would have been impossible for me to make enough payments on my single salary to cover all the debts we had intended to pay with our combined salaries and be able to keep the house for myself and my children as well.

Although I was prepared to deal with the consequences of the bankruptcy for a long time, I was surprised at how quickly my credit was re-established. I had never had any bad credit before the bankruptcy and continued making mortgage payments in a timely manner and within two years, I was able to purchase a used car at a fair interest rate and make some other purchases on credit.

I was pleasantly surprised at how quickly I recovered from the entire stressful experience.

Luckily the bankruptcy was one of the events at that time of my life that actually made the other things going on less stressful and allowed me and my children a better quality of life than we would have otherwise been able to have.

Contributed by Kelly from Delaware