Jo, there is no need to apologize. I believe that this is much simpler than you think. God created us in His image and likeness, in other words in resemblance of Him. We can potentially be like Him, but we can never be Him.
I am sure you know that. I am also sure that you know that God is a Spirit, ineffable, invisible, uncircumscribed, transcendental, and that we are nothing like that. We can become good (by cleaving to God), but God is Goodness. We may be merciful, but He is Mercy. We may be just, but His is Justice. God is the essence of everything we consider virtuous in us, because He is Virtue.
Is God present in us? He is present in everything; every thing that exists is a manifestation of God, for we exist because of Him and without Him we have no existence on our own.
So, if we can't see Him, how do we know who He is, or whether He is? The answer is through His energies. Through them, He makes Himself "detectable" by us; through them He communicates with us, through revelations and visions. Through His energies, we are moved to virtue. Through His energies we become like Him (theosis), but we never, ever, become Him.
For if we are to become Him, he would cease to be uncreated eternal God and we would cease to be created likeness of Him. Each one of us would become another Hypostasis, distinct, yet equally divine, sharing the same Essence (ousia) with the other Hypostases of which there would be as many as there are saved souls. That wold be pantheism. That wold be Hollywood!
St Basil the Great (4th century) writes: "We know our God from His energies, but we do not claim that we can draw near His essence." (Basil, Letter 234) This shows clearly that St. Gregory Palamas did not "invent" something new in Orthodox theology ten centuries (1,000 years!) later, but simply re-affirmed the patristic faith the East never altered.
Very good, Kosta mou!