Thank you all brothers for the support and well wishes, it really means a lot to me, especially now. See, the thing is it would be easier if we could point to one thing in particular that broke it all down but it's just too much pressure and stress. Eventually, something had to give.
Her and I met as me: successful 28 year old in my career field. Her? 18 year old stripper. Yeah, I know. Putting the obvious aside, at the time she really was quite mature because she had lived a hard life up to that point (I know, cliche, but true story) and I'm a hopeless romantic (Hell, it should have been me in "Say Anything"). Anyway, we were blissfully happy for 9 out of our ten years but slowly, piece by piece, stress crept in from everywhere until we were under siege from every side.
She's younger, and we got married at 20/30 so she never did the college experience and she wanted to transition into kids and owning a home. Buuuut, then after we accomplished that she really wanted her degree(s)...a dual masters in law and social work so she could be either a Guardian ad Light-em or attorney in the children and family courts. Well, that's a lot of school, and with kids that young and jobs etc., a ton of stress.
Somewhere in there I fell out of favor with her Grandmother who wanted to pay for everything as long as we lived under her rules and direction. Me being older, already a college graduate and independent, this was a problem for me. So we clashed...A LOT. This was hard on her and still is. She chose to go with Grandmother because of all the things she's doing for her (shitty, I know).
We weren't married six months when I got diagnosed with cancer...an inoperable brain tumor that I continue to battle today eight years later (it's in remission, I have great characteristics for it). But, that was even more stress for us both.
Lastly, here in Kansas City work for graphic designers and artists is rugged so you have to constantly be watching your job and/or freelancing so that's added pressure and stress to keep up with, all while raising a 4 and 5 year old. Once I fell out of favor with Grandma for not falling in line, she started pushing for me to be gone.
We tried moving to Texas where my family is and better jobs are for me. I went, got a great job and a nice place, then she was supposed to follow. She came down for the holidays of last year and her family guilted her into moving back to KC. I had no choice but to quit and return too because of my kids. We own a condo that was our home, but it had $29,000 in water damage during the bad winter snap and I had to fight to get it fixed (FU Travelers) and then now I'm fighting to keep it (FU Wells Fargo). To say my life has been a shitstorm for the past year is an understatement.