Sorry I'm late to the thread. I went through almost this exact situation with my first wife. Biggest difference was that when my wife left, I couldn't afford the house and bills on just my salary. I did everything possible to save the house and/or sell it, but in the end it got foreclosed. Other than that we split everything and neither of us took any money from one another.
Now on to the important part. Our daughter was 3 when all this happened. You can't explain it to them. They're way to young to understand. However, there WILL be negative consequences. When kids start to realize things arnt like before, they act out. Maybe not in a bad behavior kind of way, but they will do things due to the divorce. I'm not saying every child will do this, I'm just speaking from my experience. Even now with our child being 9, I can still see the re percussions from our divorce. There's just something completely un natural to a child when their parents aren't together. I'm not saying anything to scare you, just speaking from my personal experience. At the end of the day, I'm very happy I'm divorced from my ex, however I do wish for my daughter's sake, that she never had to go through that at a young, vulnerable age.