In Waple v. Waple, 179 Mich. App. 673, 676; 446 N.W.2d 536 (1989), the Court considered whether a circuit court was authorized to reduce an arrearage resulting from overdue child support payments. In that case, the judgment of divorce fixed the defendant's support obligation at $ 108 a week. During postjudgment proceedings, the defendant filed a motion requesting a reduction in his support obligation. The circuit court ruled in the defendant's favor and reduced his weekly support obligation to $ 26, primarily based on the fact that one of the children for whom he was paying support was living with the defendant. The court made that support obligation retroactively effective to a date preceding the filing of the defendant's motion to reduce support and forgave the arrearage that had accumulated before the defendant filed his motion to reduce support. On appeal, this Court examined the language of 3 and concluded that the circuit court was not authorized to retroactively modify the defendant's child support arrearage for those periods before the service of the defendant's petition for modification of support. Waple, 179 Mich. App. at 674.