I’ve been away too long. I’m so sorry! I’ve been out of town a lot lately, so that always throws off my normal routine. Anyway, here are some random thoughts and observations I’ve collected in my scattered brain over the last few weeks.

• Please do not tell a hormonal, emotional pregnant woman that you can’t believe she has 3 1/2 more months to go.  You would think this would be common sense. However, it apparently needs to be said since I received this comment a few times this last week. I can’t help that I’m petite and short-waisted and thus have a tummy that has nowhere to go but out.
• I realized the other day that Grace no longer calls Carter “guh guh,” the Chinese word for big brother.  She had called him this since coming home from China, and she has fully transitioned to calling him Carter now. In fact, when she’s really serious about something, she’ll call him Carter Brown.
• Carter has made dramatic strides since Christmas when he was only interested in gifts that were for him.  In the last month, he has enjoyed wrapping up different items and toys and presenting them as gifts to other people.  Last week on my birthday, he brought me a box with all kinds of things in there…including my wedding rings that had been on the dresser. Yikes! Just glad they got to me without falling in a crack somwhere! But his thoughtfulness and generosity have been so refreshing and touching.
• I’ve been traveling back to my childhood by listening to Whitney Houston’s Greastest Hits.  As I read online somewhere, she was “a staple in the soundtrack to my childhood.”  It’s amazing how many of her songs I still have memorized.  And I can clearly remember dancing around and singing her songs from age 7 and up.  Such pure talent!
• I really like the smell of Cascade Complete dishwashing detergent.  I have to literally stop myself from sniffing it as I pour it into the dishwasher.  I think I liked this smell when pregnant with Carter too.
• I just watched this past week’s episode of Parenthood.  And in one scene, 19-year-old Amber climbs into bed to be comforted by her mom, Sarah Braverman. For a few moments, I wondered whether Caroline would ever do that. Will we ever have that kind of intimacy? Will she ever let me comfort her and hold her in my arms? I don’t expect it soon. But it was a hard moment to ponder as I realized that we might not ever have that.  And I have to be okay with that, I guess.
• It’s been a really rough and emotional 2 weeks. On February 15th, my close friend learned at her routine 8 month appointment that her baby girl no longer had a heartbeat.  She had just felt her moving the day before. What followed were circumstances I can empathize with but cannot fully grasp….delivering her baby, holding her and then having to let her go, breaking the news to their two boys who so longed for a litlte sister, planning a memorial service, and making that first visit back to the cemetery.  While I know a few other women that this has happened to, she is the closest friend of them, and so I’m experiencing sadness and grief on a whole new level.  Many tears, countless prayers, and a general feeling of helplessness.  This has made me praise God more often for the movements in my belly. And I know I will have a difficult time putting my baby down when he/she arrives in June.
• I’ll be back soon….much to blog about this week.  I am thankful that the post about being honest regarding adoption touched so many of you. Your comments and emails assured me that sometimes it’s worth it to lay your life out there in hopes that it will help or encourage someone else.
• Oh, and a few people asked about the blogroll on my old blog. That blog is still up (www.scottkelleyandcarter.blogspot.com), so you can find the updated links to blogs there. This format doesn’t have a sidebar for a blogroll, so hopefully you can find the links you’re looking for on the old site.

“And to Him who is able to do immeasurably more than we can ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within us, to Him be glory  in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever. Amen!”  Ephesians 3:20-21