I'm so glad you asked, Heidi. I believe I will. Let's see....how and where should I begin?

Ok. Let's just start from the beginning. My brother has a child with his ex-wife. Volatile childhood romance gone awry. Their daughter, Haley, will be graduating from high school in two weeks. Her plans are to go to Louisiana Tech and she plans to move out on her own. There again.....long story but suffice to say there is too much drama living at home.

So, why am I ranting, you ask? Because Haley turned 18 in January. My brother was no longer required by law to pay child support so now he has quit giving her any money at all. Graduation is expensive-invitations, senior trip, senior portraits, yadda, yadda. My brother promised to send me money to spend on her as I saw fit since he and his ex-wife don't communicate very well. He knows I am very frugal and very practical. BUT, he has not sent me any money for her and he has changed his cell phone number so that no one can contact him.

My sister and me have decided that for graduation we would give Haley the basic things she will need to live on her own. Haley has a job. In fact, she has two part time jobs AND she teaches clogging to a class of younger girls. She is pretty and she has a plan for her future. At least, it seems like she does.

You would think that my brother would be proud of her and happy to help out. Apparently, it is all lip service and probably to spite her mother. This has upset Haley to no end. I am encouraging her to try to think well of her father but I'm not making excuses for him. It's lousy that he will not be of any support to her at a time when she really needs it the most. To me, this pergatory between childhood and adulthood makes for very vulnerable young woman. Also, I told her that, in my opinion, he is wrong, wrong, wrong, that he will someday regret not being the kind of father he should have been and the one she needed. In my own heart, I'm struggling to forgive him for being a miserable bastard but at the moment I can't seem to move past the hurt. If I am feeling hurt, then I can't imagine how his daughter must be feeling. Her mother is not going to be much help to her that much emotionally or financially. She's the kind of person that is a black hole and in a world of her own.

Long story short, I am trying to do what I can to help her and as much as I can. Between my sister and me, I think we have the basics covered. I will tell you that her father has been absent for many other milestones in her life-like Homecoming Courts and when she had surgery a month ago.

She has qualified for the Tops scholarship so almost all of her college will be paid, so that is a major load off my mind.

I would like to murder him. There. I feel a little bit better. What do I win?

"Grits is one of those country-boy words that is both singular and plural-like deer, elk and sheep. I think the singular is appropriate when there's a modifier that makes it clear one is talking about something specific. Like, 'Grits are good for you, but these here grits is tasty.'"~~Joe Wrabek