Hey all! February is such a short month so I'm giving you lovely lot an update today so you get your two updates this month. I'm expecting my hours at work to start going up next month but I'm ahead on all my stories. Big thanks to everyone reading this. Big thanks to SweetKid45, JaneAndMaura05, Vbbneighbor, SallyRally and Bovary for the review. Hope you had a great Valentine's Day.

Lots of love,

LM xxxxxx

A New Family, a New Future-Part 8:

Louisa's adoption had finally been aproved and Jane and Maura had decided that they were going to organise a party to celebrate. They'd ended up in a conversation with Louisa about her surname.

"I don't want to change it," Louisa had said, "I may well do in the future but I don't want to fully lose the Vance connections. My surname is the only thing that I actually have left of my previous life."

Jane and Maura looked at Louisa as they were clearly thinking about what she had said. They had had no idea that Louisa's surname had meant as much to her as it did and Maura sighed, causing Louisa to look down as she thought she'd upset them.

"Oh Louisa! You haven't upset us at all," Maura said, "we just had no idea that your surname meant that much to you."

"I know I'm getting a new family but I want something that connects me to my mum and dad still. I know I have the photos and memories but my name also means everything to me as well," Louisa said.

"You don't have to change your surname if you don't want to," Jane said, "maybe in the future you'll feel like you want to change it but if you don't want to now then that is what we'll do. You matter to us and so do your opinions and wishes Lou."

"We may be about to enter into yet another new chapter of this crazy family and your life and the changes will be hard but we'll all be learning together," Maura said, "mistakes will be made but that's all part of the learning process for us all."

"But we have the family to help." Louisa said, "surely they'll be helping us…"

"They will be but a lot of it will be down to us and us learning from it all. Like your first day at high school. That will be new to everyone but we will get through it all," Maura said, "but yes the family will be around to help us and point us in the right direction when we're unsure." Louisa nodded before she headed to her room.

Jane and Maura had wanted Louisa to have an input into the party but then Jane and Maura had a change of heart and decided that it would be just an informal gathering to celebrate something that everyone had known was coming anyway. That and they felt that Louisa was probably going to be overwhelmed by everything becoming official.

To have a break from everything Maura suggested to Jane that they took Louisa to the ice rink and just let her skate around and forget about everything. That and she had missed a couple of sessions so Maura wanted her to feel like she could go any time that she wanted to.

Louisa was getting ready and Jane and Maura had found some seats and were sat waiting.

"I don't really see the point of this," Jane said as Louisa came out and went onto the ice.

"You may not but I do. Skating is the only true connection she has to Sadie; yes she has all the memories and photos but being on the ice means that she's close to her mother, like Sadie is there with her," Maura said, "we may now be her new mothers but really nothing will change for any of us," she said before turning and looking and watching Louisa on the ice.

Louisa was out on the ice and it was rather quiet so Louisa was practicing her twirls and spins and jumps. She was fully relaxed and had forgotten about everything except her routine and where she was.

"She's good," Jane admitted, "how did she get so good?"

"Sadie was a gifted figure skater and passed on everything she knew to her daughter," Maura said, "Hope saw her a couple of times. I think it was the one place the mother and daughter could just be alone and forget about their lives and just have fun on the ice. I get the impression it was the only thing that they did together and that is why Starfish has such a connection with the ice."

"Because she can be close to her mother…That explains why she stopped when Sadie died, because she lost her way without her mother and Brian didn't understand or really have a connection with his daughter."

"Because he was too busy trying to keep Sadie and Louisa alive and safe so when Sadie was taken from them he was also lost and didn't know how to connect with Louisa so they both lost their way and in some ways they never really recovered from losing Sadie," Maura said.

"I guess I was wrong about why this was all stupid," Jane said before grabbing the hire skates she'd brought with her and was soon joining Louisa on the ice.

Louisa instantly skated over and began to help Jane skate and Maura remained firmly stuck in her seat as she knew Jane and Louisa needed to get the connection she had with Louisa. Maura was already family but Jane and Louisa needed to strengthen their relationship and this was one area that that Louisa knew more than she did.

Maura also decided that she'd treat Jane and Louisa to a meal out as it was just the three of them and that was a rare moment and Maura was determined to cherish these moments before their bliss was shattered, which it was bound to be at some point.