The beginning of my story is common among divorced parents with children to raise: When my ex-husband and I divorced, provisions were set up in our divorce agreement for the financial care of our two children. The courts were quick to give him his divorce, but the words in our divorce papers concerning our children were only that: just words.

For the first year of being a single parent, I received very little support. Trying to get the Court Order enforced was a joke. After I moved back to my home state, I had to wait six months to become a resident there before I could hire a lawyer and take my ex-husband to court. Hiring a lawyer began numerous trips back to court, and at each appearance my ex-husband tried to have the child support amount lowered! Meanwhile, nothing was done about what he owed me. He walked out of the courtroom owing me money every time.

Soon my lawyer's retainer fee ran out and I couldn't afford to pay him anymore. So I turned to Social Services for help. The Case Worker assigned to me attempted to garnish my ex-husband's wages by going through the company he worked for. After about a year of sending paperwork back and forth, his employer refused to comply because my Social Services Office was out of their jurisdiction.

Then I was told by my Case Worker, that in order for them to garnish his wages, we would have to file a different kind of action which involved a mountain of paperwork and took nearly another year to complete. In the end it guaranteed nothing. By then, he owed me over $14,000.

The end of my story is a lot different from what you might expect. My mother heard an advertisement on the radio for the National Child Support Network about a year ago. She jotted down the phone number: 1-800-PAY-KIDS, and called to tell me about it as soon as she got home. I remember thinking to myself: "Well, I've tried going through the system, and the system doesn't work. What could it hurt?" So, I called the number and have never regretted it.

My ex-husband seemed to have dropped out of sight, but they found him. He had an unlisted phone number, but they called him. And even though he is now unemployed, I have received child support every month since they've taken my case.

National Child Support Network helped me when no-one else could and I would like to publicly thank them for it. I would also like to urge anyone having trouble collecting Child Support to call the toll free number: 1-800-PAY-KIDS.

~Ann