After matching so fast for this round of adoption, we kind of picked names in a flurry and sat on them. When we lost the baby, I reopened the conversation. Tossing names around has helped us move on from a confirmed brother for Remy to a wide-open sea of possibilities again. We won’t know race, gender, geography (although Florida is likely) or anything.

So we’re toying a few lovely names, and hoping we’ll have an excuse to use one soon.

Over Christmas, we didn’t have the chance to worry about it! The kids really understood Christmas for the first time. Tess is very serious about baby Jesus and the holy family, and also… Presents. Remy pretty much just wanted to take everybody stuff the whole time. They had a wonderful time playing with their cousins – especially Sara, who isn’t here all the time. I think she is Tess and Remy’s hero!

We had a storybook Christmas, with family dinners and fires and stockings brimming with dinosaurs and toothbrushes. The kids got tons of books and toys, but more importantly they got tons of time with the people they love. Everyone did an awesome job of keeping Christmas about Christmas and family this year.

As we move into 2015, our angst about our next child grows with every day. We understand that adopting with two children at home makes us less attractive than Parents adopting for the first time. Still, we watched many opportunities come and go in the last few weeks. I have to admit, we’re going a little crazy. So cross your fingers for us, that in the next few months we get picked by another wonderful birth mother and we get to meet our third child. We can’t think of a better way to celebrate next year. And a happy New Year to all of you from all of us!