Thanks, Hamster! I'm glad to be back, too.

I got to the point where I felt like all I was doing on here was whining, with responding to a few other posts here and there, and thought I should take a break before I fell into the habit of always being a taker and never a giver.

There might be a few small ways that I can help sibling get back on track without mother knowing exactly what's up. Sibling would have to keep mouth shut about the help because we've got a situation where a close friend of sibling's tends to tell sibling's personal business to his own family, and then we've had a couple of those family members telling OTHER people about it and then the stories get back to us. "Hey, So-and-So tells me your sibling was having trouble with ____. How did that work out? Were you able to send enough money to help?" Stuff like that.

Sibling has said, "Oh, my friend won't tell. He'll keep whatever I tell him confidential." Yet the friend blabs and it comes back around. I don't think the friend has bad intentions. He just doesn't think about the fact that a few of his family members love to spread gossip.