Paisley's Flight Home

It is 10 am on tuesday july 25th. I just dropped my daughter off with her mom at the salt lake city airport after over a month of having her. This was the longest time I have got to spend with my daughter since the divorce. Every time she leaves I am extremely saddened knowing that I will not see her for a few months. It gets worse and worse as she gets older. She is 7 now, and she is finding out how to show emotion. The flight from LAX to Salt Lake City was about 1 hour and 20 minutes. The entire flight she either held my hand or my arm, but not because she was scarred, she loves flying. I at first thought she was just being sweet and holding my arm, then I saw her crying. She looked at me and gave me a hug while crying mid flight and said “ i had a fun time with you daddy. I am going to miss you.” This was the first time she has ever cried when leaving to go home. That hit me extremely hard. An overwhelming emotion of happy and sad. Happy because she had a fun time with me in California, but yet sad because i had to see her cry and she had to leave. The remainder of the flight we both took turns playing a video game on her phone. When it came time and her mom showed up to pick her up. She gave me a giant hug and told me that she will miss me. We loaded her bags up and then she gave another hus and said “Love you daddy.” We said our goodbyes and just like that, she was gone again.