Michaleigh's new love

So Michaleigh has been begging for an American Girl doll for several months now. We told her that she would have to wait until she was a little older and was able to understand how much they cost and would be responsible enough to take care of such an investment. Plus, she didn't really know anything about the dolls and she couldn't find one that looked exactly like her. So we were thinking about getting her one for her next birthday in December hoping that by then she would either be able to find one that looked like her or learn about one that she was interested in. However...we hadn't planned on finding one at an auction. Our church has a school, Northridge Christian School, which is where Michaleigh will be going next year for Kindergarten. Each year they hold an auction to benefit the school. I was scheduled to work at the event so we headed over to check out the kid's carnival, silent auction, etc. Wouldn't you know that one of the items for the live auction was an American Girl doll! Of course Michaleigh zoned in on that right away and begged for us to get it. We weren't planning on staying for the live auction but when we looked at the doll, it definitely reminded us of Michaleigh (the hair was the closest to hers that I've seen and the eyes are a little greener than Michaleigh's but it's still close) and knowing that the money would go to the school rather than to the American Girl company, we felt like we needed to at least try. At dinner, Andy and I discussed what we thought we would have to pay if we were to order one online and determined what we would be willing to spend for the doll. That night we anxiously waited to the doll to come up and when it did Andy used his super bidding skills and won the doll for Michaleigh! If the doll had gone for a dollar more she would belong to another little girl but our little girl was ecstatic to find out that daddy had won her. You can tell by the grin that went ear to ear!