My baby girl left on a jet plane today.  Three+ months in England, Ireland, Scotland with two added weeks in South Africa.  We were able to see her and take her to the airport at LAX today.  I was so happy to be able to do that.  She is so excited, as she should be.  Haley is performing with the Young Americans on their UK tour until mid April.  This is her first tour.  Now, a tour for them means doing 2 ½ day workshops in the schools with kids from 8 to 18.  They teach them song and dance and how to perform on a stage.  She had this same experience when she was 13 and it changed her life.

In fact, it changed all of our lives.  Haley became a performer, she started singing, she started acting and it created a lot of time and energy that we spent in the theaters.  For the last two years of high school she worried extensively about where she would go to school, she wanted to attend the Young Americans college, but to do that, she had to audition.  That turned out to be quite a chore, the first summer at camp when it was time to audition, she had to catch a bus, so she missed it.  The second year she auditioned, it was late July, she was due to start at AMDA in November for her first semester of college.  On August 5, she got the call, she was in!  Now to find a way to get everything done to have her at the school by August 25.  We did it and she was on her way.  The first year she lived “on campus” and participated in all the shows, for summer she went back to camp as a teacher this time instead of a student and then the fall of her second year, she was on Res Cast.  Haley choose Res Cast so she could be back on campus finishing her class work instead of touring.  So this UK tour is her first.

I was very strong when I was with her at the airport, sent her a text after we left reminding her how strong and capable she is, that she is beautiful and hard working and deserves to be on this tour.  I also told her I loved her.  She called for one last phone call after she had loaded on the plane and before they closed the doors, one last I love you before the actual phone calls cease.  I was great until I hung up the phone.  I lost it then, I broke down and cried, we have been running so fast and furious just taking care of details that I finally realized how much I am going to miss her.  Haley and I talk almost everyday, besides my husband, she is my best friend.  I am so proud of her and so happy for her, I already miss her lots.  Thank goodness, she writes a blog too, I will be able to enjoy her time in the UK as much as I enjoy my time and travels.  Check out her blog at Life as a YA, she speaks in such an authentic voice.  I love my baby girl – oh, and it’s her birthday, she turns 20 today.