Time To Grow Up

A family friend's daughter is about to turn 13. This may just be another birthday to some, but in the Jewish culture it is an important birthday. She is about to become a woman in the eyes of the temple. It breaks my heart that I won't be able to be there for her at Bat Mitzvah in November because I will still be in Rochester, NY at school. Her mother told me that Haley, the soon to be woman, wanted to have a Mitzvah Project, where she would raise money for a charity. She picked Operation Homefront, a charity that gives school supplies to children of the military whose parents can't afford to buy them new supplies. The garage sale was the first step in this project and then next step, which I am hoping I'll be able to photograph, will be to drop off the money she raised to Operation Homefront. She really is turning into quite the young lady.