My Hypothetical Family Situation

I am a thirty-one-year-old mother living in metro-Atlanta. I have a GED and a few nursing classes under my belt but I dropped out of college when I had my precious son James a decade ago. My husband hit it big in his early twenties and allowed me to stay home with James, who is autistic, while he worked and supported the family. Six months ago, my husband lost his job without warning and it caused a lot of fighting between us. One day he took off and two weeks later, I was served with divorce papers. He stopped paying the mortgage, the utility bills and the car payment. Now our home is heading into foreclosure, my car has been repossessed and I have had to deplete our savings just to keep the electricity on and food on our table. I have tried desperately to get a job but apparently no one wants a thirty-one-year old with nothing more than a GED and absolutely no work history; especially in this economy where even college graduates are working at fast food restaurants. James requires lots of special attention and care that I am afraid I cannot continue to provide for him. He sees a speech therapist every Wednesday after school and sees other various specialists throughout the month as well. Fortunately, he was approved for Medicaid but the therapists and specialists he was seeing do not accept this type of insurance. His father was only ordered to pay $200.00 a month in the divorce decree, which barely covers the food James eats in a week. My family lives eight hours away and have offered for us to move in with them but that means even more life changes for James. I fear the emotional damage this is all going to cause him... It is like his life was turned upside down in a matter of months and he is having a hard time understanding why. To be honest, I am having a hard time understanding why as well.