Meet Trot

We have a new family member!  On Saturday we drove to Massachusetts to choose our new puppy.   This was not the same place that we went to look at the other litter of nine chocolates and blacks.  We never heard back from that breeder so I guess those had all been spoken for.  Anyway, we had several choices, the top two were between this chocolate and this yellow.  Shaun and I really wanted the chocolate but both Avery and Amanda were set on the yellow because "he looks like Riley".

Lots of paperwork and money later, we were headed home with our new family member.  In the car we brainstormed names.  We really wanted Amanda to be able to name the dog, since it is officially hers but all her suggestions were made up words.  How 'bout Flimag?  Blela?  After a while of the nonsense words I threw out Trot.

Fall of 2004 was when we found out we were expecting with Avery; it was also the year the Red Sox won the World Series.  We talked about using Trot, as in Trot Nixon, as a nickname for our child.  He was a good player and, more importantly, a really good guy.  When we found out we were having a girl that obviously didn't work.  But, when I brought back "Trot" in the car last Saturday the girls immediately said YES! and so far it has stuck.  

Picking out a puppy's name is a little like picking out the family Christmas tree.  Once you have one that everyone has agreed upon, you don't really want to question it, you just go with it. :)

 For better or worse he is part of our family now.   Its been harder than I thought "replacing" Riley but he's a sweet dog and will undoubtedly grow on me.  This is going to be such a different dog-raising experience than we had with Riley because the kids are involved this time.  It freaked us out more than a little to think of where we will be in our lives if Trot lives as long as Riley did.  In thirteen years we will have a 14, 17 and 18 year old.  Yikes!!

Here's a little of what these first couple days have looked like for Trot.

How blessed is God! And what a blessing he is! He's the Father of our Master, Jesus Christ, and takes us to the high places of blessing in him. Long before he laid down earth's foundations, he had us in mind, had settled on us as the focus of his love, to be made whole and holy by his love. Long, long ago he decided to adopt us into his family through Jesus Christ. (What pleasure he took in planning this!) He wanted us to enter into the celebration of his lavish gift-giving by the hand of his beloved Son.

Ephesians 1:3