I am also in your boat but my situation is I didn’t have a choice where my son was to live. My son dad got me arrested and had to spend a night in the cell while the dad crept into my son school and took him. I call it legal kidnapping. Since then the dad refuses to return my son home. He had help from social services in aiding my son to live with him. Bare in mind, the dad did not want anything to do with his son and had no input since he was born, so you could imagine being a single mother for 7 years and boom the enemy comes and snatches your pride & joy.
I struggle every single minute of the day not being a mother. Having to see my son in contact centres and having supervised calls. It really is a strain on my sanity because when you got all this love to give to your child but there is constant barriers in the way, it’s so hard to stay strong. You can’t help but put yourself down and see yourself as a failure.
To make you aware of the timeline, it has gone on for almost 4 years and next month my son will be 11. All that time I’ve missed on really cuts deep and would highly recommend you keep your kids with you unless you have any underlying issues that needs to delt with professionally but dont ever think your girls are better off with the dad. They will have things such as “girl talk” that a dad may not always be able to handle.
I hope you continue to stay strong and have an open mind and do what best feels good for your family X