The Groth Five

I cannot believe we have been married 9 years! I guess time flies when you are having fun! I am so blessed to have the most wonderful husband. We met in first grade, went to prom together our Junior year, and the rest is history! Of course, we had a few bumps along the road as we were growing up in high school and college but I am so thankful that God kept us together. Our love has changed and grown during our 14 years together and we are looking forward to many more! We received the greatest anniversary gift today - our travel approval to go to China to get Silas! Only a few more weeks until we have our son.

May has been a fun month for our family. A couple of weeks ago, Madelyn graduated from preschool! She went to the greatest little school and loved it. Caroline will be starting next year and is looking forward to school. They had a little graduation and sang some songs. She is really excited about starting kindergarten in August. What a big girl she is becoming. Here are a few pictures from her graduation.
Jason's sister Kristyn came down from Minneapolis last weekend with her fiance, Mark. We had fun visiting with them and Jason's other sister Kara and her kids. We enjoyed an afternoon at the Cincinnati zoo. The favorite animals were the peacocks (Caroline) and the cheetah's (Madelyn)!

Today, we are enjoying Memorial Day. This morning, we went the the Y and Jason and I worked out. Then we went the the pool. Whew - it was FREEZING!! We have actually enjoyed spring around KY this year and it has been cooler than the past few years. The water has not warmed up at all. We ended up swimming for a while in the indoor pool and then had our picnic lunch outside. Tonight we are going to my grandparents house for a cookout. I made a yummy Kraft foods recipe - Banana sundae cake or something like that. I'll post a picture and the recipe later.

I have had a very nice mother's day today! Jason woke me up at 8:00 : ) with breakfast! He went to Starbucks and got my favorite Chai Tea Latte and a cranberry orange scone. Yummy. He also got me a really sweet card. When I came downstairs I had a card from the girls and inside was a picture of my new Ipod nano! Jason earns points at work as a bonus and he spent them on me to get the Ipod! It should come tomorrow. I was really excited. We went to church and then came home for lunch. We worked on Silas' room some today; cleaned it out and set up his crib! Now Jason went to pick up Moe's for dinner and we are going to have a family movie night. Happy Mothers Day to all the mom's out there!

Okay, here is my attempt to catch up on the last few weeks! Spring is always so busy. Fun, but busy! I know adding #3 will make it even crazier! Good crazy though :).

Ha ha. Seriously, we had a talk and they are definitely old enough to help me out! Last week they had a blast cleaning, but after a few weeks the novelty will wear off I'm sure. I'm going to do my best to keep our home nice. Not perfect by any means, but comfortable.

The girls are busy getting ready for their ballet recital. They both love dance and the recital is always so much fun. Yesterday was the observation day and they did great performing their dances for the parents. Here are a few cute pictures.

We have our first travel meeting our China next Monday night! We are super excited to meet some of the other families we will be travelling with as well as find out more about our trip. It is hard to believe that in two months Silas will be ours! We have so much to do in the next few weeks. We need to get his room set up, pack, pack the girls, etc. I know the time will go by very quickly!

We got our LOA today!!! This is the document we have been waiting for for 70 days now. It is our official letter of acceptance from China! We are so excited. Today I went the the agency to pick up our packet. It has some travel information, our referral pictures of Silas and our LOA. We have to fill some paperwork out and get it back next week. This will be sent back to China and then we wait for our TA (Travel Approval).

We are anticipating travel in mid to late June. It is usually 6-8 weeks after receiving the LOA. We will definitely have Silas before the Olympics and his 2nd birthday! We are so thankful to everyone for your prayers. God listened and answered so faithfully! We will keep everyone posted with our travel arrangements and plans.