MerrinDonahue.com

And Facebook. Those two things are really the reasons that I’ve been so absent here lately. Believe me, it’s not that there isn’t anything going on; quite the contrary. I *knew* that once March rolled around that time would start to fly by, and boy, has it ever.

Kevin had his one year check up at the cardiologist, and he’s doing better than we could have ever hoped for. He’s not only officially as good as new, he’s actually BETTER than he was before his heart attack.

Oliver continues to be a little monster, but that’s one of the reasons we love him in the first place. Just since April, we’ve had to replace two phones, one remote, a Kindle, countless socks, and three pillows. He’s a special little beagle, but he’s so cute that we continue to let him get away with murder. That, and Kevin ADORES him.

I spent a week in Texas visiting with the Coopers for The Boy’s fifth birthday….and I STILL can’t believe he’s FIVE. We started our adoption journey a little over three years ago, and that, too, seems like yesterday (at least some days it does; others, it still feels like an endless wait).

We’ve been to Kentucky twice in the last two and a half weeks. Sadly, the second visit was for the funeral of Kevin’s Uncle Bill. Bill and his wife, Virgie, have always been dear to me, and Bill will be missed more than I can possibly say.

We leave in just over three weeks for Africa. This, too, is completely surreal. We started dreaming about this trip a year ago, we’ve planned for countless months (just ask Kevin….the man spent 11 months researching pants, for crying out loud), and now that I’ve lost all control of time, it’s finally here. Life’s funny like that; long stretches of nothing much followed by bursts of HOLY SHIT I HAVE NO TIME.

Even so, though, we’re ready with the right meds (no malaria, here, yo), we’re geared up with super-cool safari wear (I’ve been DYING for an occasion to wear a hat I bought 3 years ago, and this is the perfect excuse!), we’re swimming in memory cards for the Nikons, and the brand new shiny Kindle (courtesy of Oliver), is loaded with reading material.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to get back to not blogging. If you miss me around here, don’t forget you can find me on Twitter (@merrindonahue), Facebook (Merrin McCallum Donahue), FriendFeed (MerrinDonahue), and plain old email. But seriously….I might have time in about, oh, three months to start hanging around here regularly again.