I'm going to honestly tell you my story, but you're not going to like it. I hope you get good responses, because this is not.
My company let me have 3 years off (unpaid, of course) and I went back to work in April. I lasted 3 weeks. Dd (3 yo) was a mess, I was a mess. I couldn't do it. But...
I have a LOT of friends who were able to do it.
The key for me was that I didn't HAVE to work for us to financially make it. My salary (I was a computer systems analyst) would have allowed us to go back to visit family in Turkey twice a year and drive BMWs, but it wasn't worth it to see dd so torn up from me being gone. Still over a month later, she asks if I'm going to work and breaks down in tears over it. She is VERY, VERY high-needs. My mother (who lives with us) was taking care of her and dd loves her yaya, but it wasn't the same without mama. I bet, though, if I hadn't been so miserable, dd would have adjusted after a couple of months.
So, for us it was a disaster, but my dd is much younger than your kids. If she were older, I'm sure it would be a different situation, so take my experience with a grain of salt. Now, I am working on getting my CDL to be a school bus driver so I can earn a little money, but be with dd most of the time. She'll go to preschool full-time in the fall.

My company let me have 3 years off (unpaid, of course) and I went back to work in April. I lasted 3 weeks. Dd (3 yo) was a mess, I was a mess. I couldn't do it. But...
I have a LOT of friends who were able to do it.
The key for me was that I didn't HAVE to work for us to financially make it. My salary (I was a computer systems analyst) would have allowed us to go back to visit family in Turkey twice a year and drive BMWs, but it wasn't worth it to see dd so torn up from me being gone. Still over a month later, she asks if I'm going to work and breaks down in tears over it. She is VERY, VERY high-needs. My mother (who lives with us) was taking care of her and dd loves her yaya, but it wasn't the same without mama. I bet, though, if I hadn't been so miserable, dd would have adjusted after a couple of months.
So, for us it was a disaster, but my dd is much younger than your kids. If she were older, I'm sure it would be a different situation, so take my experience with a grain of salt. Now, I am working on getting my CDL to be a school bus driver so I can earn a little money, but be with dd most of the time. She'll go to preschool full-time in the fall.