Everything I hear makes is sound like men have to put in so much effort on dating sites to get any leads.
YES, yes they DO! I get a lot of emails but the ones that have zero effort behind them get NO RESPONSE from me.
It does take effort to get quality replies. "Hey" or "hey sexy" pretty much gets me an eye roll and I move on.
PUT THE EFFORT IN GUYS!!!!
Sorry for the hijack. Coconut, sounds like you are doing good. it's tricky. I'll honestly think twice when I see a status as "separated". If that's there, well, then they know already and are still contacting you. You can explain the truth if it comes up.
maybe it won't cost you thousands to push it through. look a little deeper into it.