Problem Solver

When Carter was about seven or eight she was obsessed with American Girl dolls and the back stories that went with each of them, usually with some tragedy. For at least the first year Carter had only one doll, “blue eyes” who looked like her, but had no book, movie or accompanying clothing, animals or furniture that went with her era. Russ had a business trip to Chicago over Carter’s fall break so we decided to go with him and make the “meca-like” trip to the, at the time, only American Girl doll store.
Carter had saved up $27 from taking care of a neighbor’s animal. I knew that would not buy much at the American Girl Doll store, maybe some hangers for doll clothes she didn’t have or a pair of doll socks. So I gave Carter $75 to add to her money. Learning to live on a budget was a lesson I was trying to teach here.
We arrived in the Windy City and after dropping our bags, I mean literally dropping, we practically ran to the American Girl Doll store. It was a three story wonderland, with every doll, item of clothing, and extensive furniture collections beautifully displayed behind glass. In front of each item for sale were little slips of paper with a photo of the item, a description, and price on it. I told Carter that we should make one sweep through the store and she could take a slip of paper for every item she was interested in. We could take them back to the hotel and determine what she wanted to spend their $102 on, then return to the store to purchase said items.
As we entered the beautiful lobby the very first display we encountered was the Christmas sleigh, being pulled by a beautiful horse, that came with it and two Christmas coats for two dolls and Christmas garland to decorate the sleigh that had bells on the harness. It was quite a piece of craftsmanship, the all wood sleigh. Carter, being the horse lover stood drooling at the sight of it. “Look at this sleigh,” she barley whispered as if she were deprived of oxygen.
“It is beautiful,” I said. “How much does it cost?”  
Carter looked for the little pad of papers with the photo of the sleigh, she ripped one off and turned it over and gasped, “$350.” She was young enough I thought she might have been missing a zero since it was so magnificent, but she was right. I did not want to let on that I thought it was not a bad price, considering the horse and the coats.
“How much money do you have?” I asked, knowing full well. She looked down at the floor, “Only a hundred. It will take me three years to get that much.”  
“Well, $350 is a lot of money. That is just too much for me. Let’s go look at the rest of the store.” And we did, having a wonderful time studying every doll and the paraphernalia that went with each.
As the days in Chicago went on Carter did not forget the sleigh. She walked up and down Michigan Avenue mumbling, “I really want that sleigh…I really want that sleigh.” At meals She discussed that $350 was too much money for us to give to her and too much money for her grandparents. She had no idea if that were true, but she had a good work ethic and knew how hard it was for her to earn $27.
On our last night in Chicago, after we had purchased the hundred dollars worth of clothes and a dog to go along with her doll Blue Eyes we were walking back to the hotel after dinner. The sidewalks were crowded and I did my best to hold Carter’s hand when crossing the streets. With her doll in her arms in the middle of a long block Carter suddenly stopped and said in a very loud voice, “I’ve got it, I’ve got it. I know how I can get that sleigh.” Russ and I had already walked a few steps ahead of her and realized she was not with us. I came back and she looked at me with a huge smile. “I know how I can get the sleigh,” she smiled the big toothless grin of an eight year old. With my head cocked in a curious way I said, “Really?”  
Enthusiastically she shouted, “I can ask Santa for it, then it’s free.” And so she did. A true believer got that sleigh that year. I was so proud that she solved her own problem.