The important thing here FIB is that you WANT a close and regular relationship with your children. If you want it, you will find a way, through time and trial and error, to have as close a relationship as you can have given the situation.
I feel for everyone who lose that every day contact with their kids as a result of divorce or separation. The truth is that there is no perfect answer in these situations, which simply emphasizes again the sanctity of marriage and why it is important to do everything possible to keep a marriage healthy, viable, and lasting.
Sometimes we simply have no choice, as many of us here have experienced.
My trial right now is the empty nest. For the first time in my life, I do not have my boys, either of them, with me each day. Even more, I now have nearly 700 miles between us. I feel the ache of their absence every day. At least I can take solace in the fact that in this case it is simply the next stage of my life. I'm so sorry that you and others are dealing with this same kind of loss prematurely.
I have no trite or easy answer, and I'm sure there is not one. One of the things that I have learned over the past four years is to embrace my place in life and find the happiness and joy that it contains.
I know you will and are doing the same with your situation right now. Take heart in the positive changes and find a way to use the positives to make some of the negatives better.
Again I will say that your children will never doubt that you WANT to be in their lives each and every day. While that does not fill your empty times, it does mean that your children will never be without their father, whether present with them or right at the front of their heart.
Blessings,
Bill
"Don't tell me the sky is the limit when there are footprints on the moon."
