Mary Lou's Story
Mary Lou separated from her husband when their son was only six months old. When her divorce was finalized in 1992, Mary Lou had a court order for her ex-husband to pay $280 a month in child support. Mary Lou never received steady child support for five years. Whenever she brought up the subject of child support in conversations with her ex-husband, he always cut her off.
Mary Lou was fortunate that she had a stable job with the federal government that provided excellent benefits for her family. However, the steady support payments would have made a big difference in her son's life. While she could afford to put food on the table, she wanted more for him.
After struggling for five years to enforce her court order on her own, Mary Lou, who had heard about AmeriKids, a private child support enforcement agency, decided to seek help. She looked up the company's contact information in the yellow pages and made a phone call. It was hard for her to realize that her husband just wasn't going to do the right thing on his own.
In December 1997, Mary Lou signed up with AmeriKids and gave them permission to work her case. By this time she was owed thousands of dollars in child support. AmeriKids started working on Mary Lou's case immediately. Within a month of signing her contract, Mary Lou began receiving monthly child support payments. AmeriKids has collected a total of $ 8,496 dollars for Mary Lou. They are continuing to collect her court-ordered child support.
Mary Lou is grateful not to have to deal with her ex-husband anymore. The stress and emotional strain of those conversations were too much for her to bear.
Grateful for the time AmeriKids spends on her case, Mary Lou appreciates the professionalism and sympathetic attitude demonstrated by the AmeriKids staff. There is so much sympathy and understanding
with the employees, she said. Mary Lou also finds comfort knowing that so many AmeriKids employees are single mothers who had experienced what she is going through. She said that it is nice to be able to share something with them and go through it together.
