F finally came to MN from CA where he was working, but we couldn't afford to live anymore. He hasn't been able to find a job here. It's hard because he's got 20 years in as a federal police officer in France, and a year's work at McDonald's when he was 17. He's applied for security jobs, which is what he was doing in CA (you have to have applied for naturalization to work as a cop in the US, which we didn't know before getting his green card), and has applied for all sorts of things, but no luck yet. We don't have a car, as we sold our car in France before coming here for F to fulfill his American Dream, but we haven't had enough money since to buy one here.

We had come to the US when he first got his green card in 2008 and he had joined the Army. But then his administration called him back to France for six months, so the Army had to release him after just two weeks. He's tried to re-enlist but has been in that process since May with no luck.

He's asked for a renewal of his leave of absence, and as soon as we get the orders, he's going to ask to go back into service in his job in France. He was a brigade supervisor there, and will have to have some renewal training and pass a physical, but there's nothing that should prevent him from getting his job back there.

I hate to see him lose faith in the country he was so excited to immigrate to. Being a cop in France isn't easy. There's a lot of immigration problems in and around Paris, where he works, and tons and tons of anti-police violence.

And to think, before I got married and moved to France, I was working teaching France for the Department of Defense in Monterey, CA, had a great apartment on the beach (I'd have to shut my sliding glass doors because the sound of the waves breaking would keep me up at night), etc.

Since I went to live in France for almost all of the first two years of our marriage, my daughter decided to live with her deadbeat dad of a father in Wisconsin, where she has two baby sisters and another on the way. Having her want to do that broke my heart.

The economic problems in the US, so much more so now than just a year and a half ago have really broken F's spirit, as has not ever hearing a yes or no from the Army, etc.

His green card was conditional, as we had been married less than two years when it was issued. It expires January 31. It costs $545 to renew, and not only can we not afford to do so under the circumstances, but if he can't get a job, then we can't afford to stay here, but don't even have the money, yet, to go back.

The way it stands, he has to leave by January 31. After the difficulties for our marriage with him in CA and me in MN for 3 months, I'm not letting him go without me! But I have to go to court for my daughter on December 1, so we can't leave before then even if we had the money!

Life kind of sucks, but you do what you have to do, doncha' know.