Your time w/ your kids sounded great and it was clear they were all excited about having a "place" w/ dad. The fact they were excited about putting their names on the doors is proof they are looking forward to spending time w/ you again.
The unknown entity is the court system, but things should work out well b/c the custody issues are supposed to be based on you as a father, not what your W felt you were (or weren't) as a husband. If they look at your case as they are supposed to do, you will be fine. However, as I know too well, there just isn't anything we can definitely hang our hat on as it is subjective to a great extent. Hopefully, past history of cases will work well for you, as I'm confident it will.
It is easy for me to say I'm confident for you, but it is not my children at stake. I know how uneasy you are as I'm in the same boat. I can only keep praying that I'm right. As always, you will be in my prayers, my good friend.
As for my being able to meet someone more easily than you, that may be true, but it also may not be. The more I've been able to leave my house and GAL, the more I'm coming to realize there are so many people in this world who will be interested in meeting me for me. I'm a school teacher and I make NOTHING, but I know there are people out there who will want to be w/ me for who I am.
I think the same will go for you too. If someone is turned off by your having 4 kids, you wouldn't want them anyway. The same goes for me. If you don't like the fact I'm not super rich, then I don't want you either. We both will be looking for substance and we'll find it. The people we'll find will understand that life takes as well as it gives.
The hard thing will be to be patient. We've been patiently waiting on our Ws to want to come back and now we'll have to continue to wait to find that someone to travel the rest of our lives with. We'll both find that person to be interested in helping us raise our children, or we won't pursue them.
I'm still holding out hope that person will once agian be my W. I know you are feeling the same way. Maybe it will, but if not, we'll both come out on top. Nice guys will finish first, despite what the old wive's tale states to the contrary.
I've decided the worst thing that will happen to me is I'll be exclusively "dating" my 5-year-old for the next 13 years until she leaves for college. That really isn't a bad thing and my life could be so much worse than that.
