Morv, I take it from your post that you are over here in the USA. In which case you may want to check out the Airline Pilot Central forums, I won't post a direct link here as I don't want to upset the mods, but Google it. They are geared more towards US pilots whereas Pprune is more of a European forum.
Regarding your ambitions, if you love it then by all means go for it, however, go in with your eyes wide open. I fly for one of the biggest airlines over here and we are hiring like crazy at the moment in anticipation of the increase in experience that the FAA will require all airline pilots to have from next year. Gone are the days of getting a job with an airline with 250 hours. From August next year you will be required to hold an ATP and have at least 1,500 hours of flight time. That equates to about two or three years of full time, intense flight instructing or general GA flying on incredibly bad pay. At my airline we have just raised our minimums for hiring from 900 hours with 50 multi to 1,200 and 200 multi. The nearer we get to the new rules coming into force next summer, the higher our hiring minimums will go.
If and when you get into your first airline, it will be a regional. The first year pay is very poor at about $23,000. Depending on which company you go and how hard you work you can make about $50,000 from your second year onwards. The industry in the USA has been stagnent for a very long time and there is a huge number of very experience pilots sitting in the left hand seat at the regionals desperate for the chance to go to the majors. The projected pilot shortage is unlikely to affect the majors, it might not even affect the regionals. If you are coming into the industry now I would take the time to really do your research and be prepared to possibly be stuck at the regionals for the rest of your career as the majors outsource more and more of their flying. There's a ton of great information on the web site I mentioned above, and fltops.com is also worth checking out.
Whatever you do, I wish you all the very best of luck. If you love flying as much as you say you do, then I'm sure you'll get there eventually. Just make sure that you make the right choice for you and your new family.