Working as a flight attendant

Q: I'm born Muslim but never practised. I knew haram from halal but it meant nothing to me, which I really regret a lot now. My question is: I used to work as a flight attendant/cabin crew in a airline before, I used to have some flights where we served alcohol. "I quit a year ago" and started to searching for a halaal job and now I have a job, got married and some how make ends meet by the grace of Allah. Now when I need money for the rent and stuff out of the blue, after one whole year, I got a cheque from the same company for my final due payment. The cheque is pretty sweet but I don't know if its a blessing from Allah or a test. I'm going crazy behind this, and to top it up, I got to explain all this to my wife. please tell me what to do?

PS: The cheque is in two half's one part is where I served alcohol and the other where I did not. The benefits are combined though.

Hadith Query

Q: Is the following Hadith saheeh? The prophet (Sallallahu Alayhi Wasallam) said "I have no connection with one who shaves (His Beard), shouts and tears his clothing eg. in grief or affication." - Reported by Abu Darda (R.A) (Saheeh Muslim)

Paying attention towards one's children

Q: I would like my husband to pay more attention to his kids than his nieces. He treats them better than his own kids and I feel as if we cannot do anything as a family as they are with us every where. Sometimes I would like to do things as a family but this hardly ever happens.
Their parents hardly bother with our kids so it upsets me when my husband treats their daughters as our own, but he does not see this and wants them including in every aspect of our life. Many times he has left our kids at home and taken their daughters instead which really annoys me. Please is there any dua I can read which will make him pay attention to his kids and distance himself from nieces. I do not mean this in a horrible way but I would like us to do things as a family for once.

Is Salaah a requirement for Tawbah

Q: If you want to repent for major sins you, do you need to pray salaah to get your repentance accepted or without salaah you repentance will get accepted? For example I want to repent for lying and drinking alcohol, do I need to pray salaah in order for my repentance to get accepted. Does repentance on it's own get accepted?