Wife has left and filed for divorce

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But moving on. The boys and my family had a great weekend. Friday night was spent having a waffle dinner with my parents, brother, and his girlfriend. On Saturday we went to church and played with my niece who came from out of town to see the boys. That night we went to a live rendition of Goodnight Moon (it was a kid's program and all the kids wore their pajamas) and the boys had a blast! My older son kept telling me it was the best day ever, and my younger son also had such a fun time.

I dropped them off at the park the next day with my MIL. We had another really positive conversation (or at least I thought it was). These were the interesting things she told me:

1) My W has been surprised that I haven't fought her during the last few weeks. there was an Order of Protection that was dropped, a divorce that was filed, and a mutual restraining order that was filed. Through all of this I have been patient and have given my W the time and space she has requested (I had to, legally speaking, of course, but it's still been a good thing). When we talked about divorce in the past, I had threatened in my anger to fight her with all my strength in court if I had to. I guess that was what she expected me to do recently, though right now all I want is reconciliation. I also think my W was surprised because I was VERY controlling during our marriage. I've realized now how awful that was and so am doing the complete opposite, which is just patiently waiting on my W and seeing how things progress with no attempt at control from my end.

2) My W and her family are impressed with my pleasantness and how nice I've been being. I was wondering how my W would be able to see the changes happening in my life because of the mutual restraining order and the fact we haven't spoken to each other since 10/15, but she's been definitely noticing, and so has her family.

3) My W wants me to have more time with the kids. Her lawyer originally said the plan was for me to see them every other weekend, but now my W wants me to be able to see them at least once during my off week as well. Still not good enough for me, but it's more than what she was originally wanting.

4) My MIL, with a large smile on her face, talked about how nice it'd be if my W and I could come together to talk. But we both agreed now was not the time for that because both my W and I need to continue our healing and improvement.

5) My W told her mother how she thought my OCD was the cause of our major issues (abuse, my bad temper, etc.) and how, as my W, she should stand by me as her husband. Her mother didn't think it was just my OCD that was the root of my bad behavior, and I completely agreed. But it was nice to see that my W was toying around with her sense of loyalty to me.

I mentioned to my MIL that I'm getting treatment for my OCD (it really got out of hand during my marriage) and, in response to her talking about how impressed they've been with my pleasantness, mentioned how I should've been this way years ago.

I left the conversation feeling very positive, that even though the divorce is still filed and things are moving in that direction, my W is still talking about me, noticing my improvements and changes, and that my MIL even thinks we should talk sometime. Sunday was the first day I actually felt tangible hope!

For now, I'm continuing to GAL (hitting the gym tonight), working on detachment, my walk with God, and just being a nicer, more patient guy. I'm also continuing with my weekly abuse intervention program, which has been amazing and has forced me to fully confront my terrible behavior in the past (what a very painful process it's been) and am also continuing to go to a men's group and meet with other men who hold me accountable and such.

Anything else I should be doing? Right now I feel like my marriage, which had an F- grade, is now around a D. I do feel like if my W has said these things to her MIL after only a month of NC, that there's a good chance that two or three more months will result in more positive news. And even if the divorce does go through, I also feel that as my W (or XW at that time) continues to see my genuine changes, that she will be willing to build a new marriage.

What do you all think?