Being taught

This weekend Shelby brought home a little cardboard box from school that she put together, and then about emptied out her piggy bank putting all the coins she could fit into it.  As she did it, she told us all about how it was for sick kids at the hospital and how the class who brought the most coins would win a pasta party.  I begrudgingly let her fill it up as I watched her heavy piggy bank become light again, but told her to save the dollars and not take them.
Monday, she proudly announced that she had taken $16.25 (her teacher counted it) and brought home the darn cardboard box again.  I was thinking, "Really, they sent it home again?!"  See, this momma was thinking about how my baby was using ALL her "hard-saved" (eye-roll) money for a party she probably wasn't going to win anyway.  Seriously.  Such a scrooge! 
When I saw her filling the box up again from her piggy bank, I even told her that she needed to tell her friends to bring money and I thought she shouldn't take any more until other kids took some because if no one else took any then she wouldn't win the pasta party anyway.   (Seriously.  What goes through my head?  Winning.  Did I even THINK about the kids with Leukemia and Lymphoma that she is trying to help?  Sadly, no.)

Still, last night while getting her school bag ready, I found that she had completely filled that little box up with coins again, AND stuck it in her bag to take to school.  I even thought about taking it out of her bag.  But I didn't.  I decided to let her make her own choice about it.
Today when I picked her up from school she proudly announced that she had taken more money and that Shanza did too.  I smiled and told her "good job" and that was it.
Hours later, while she was playing out in the front yard making a "stew" in the bird bath, she skipped over to me while I was reading my book and said, "Mommy I don't care if my friends bring money or about the pasta.  I just want to help the sick kids in the hospital get better."
SERIOUSLY.  REALITY CHECK!!!  How did ***I*** (we!) raise this beautiful child? 
There's nothing else to say except that she is amazing, in spite of me sometimes.  And I LOVE her.