@mammy - glad it went ok, but I agree, wrong of him to give them an impression of it being temporary. I can't remember how old your DCs are, but little children remember things completely as they understand them so wrong to make them misunderstand from the off. I don't think he's doing himself any favours there, but at least you can remain consistent. You have handled all this so brilliantly.
@CannotFindAUsernme hmm, sounds like his motives are completely financial to me 
@RoseMartha hugs to you. Glad things are moving along a bit, but the extra worries don't make it easy do they? 
I hope he doesn't get the extra contact.
Ladies, as someone who came from a family with divorced parents, I can honestly say that the kids figure out the shitty parent in the end. I look back now and realise how amazing my dad was to always maintain composure, to stick to his boundaries consistently and to never slag off my mum (well, not while I was a kid anyway, as soon as I started moaning about her during my teens and beyond, he did a fair amount of 'reflecting' on the similarities between how she had dealt with him 
). My mum was all over the places, she definitely played games - although I didn't see it at the time, I found myself very confused by her inconsistency and randomness and it only served to make me feel like retreating back home to my dad because everything was just normal and comfortable there.
Difficult to do, (I must ask my dad for tips!) but remaining consistent with boundaries etc is the best we can do for our kids