Top Ten Events for 2011

10. This past summer we were asked to be a part of the lead pastoral team at Catch the Fire Raleigh. It is such an honor to join such an amazing group of leaders. We have had so much fun helping to give input as the church moves forward and grows stronger and closer together. Stacy has preached more and I have had my first opportunities to MC the meetings. God is growing and stretching us every week. We love it.

9. Caleb reminded us that this year we got to go the circus for the first time EVER! Crazy that our boys are so old and have never been. And it's such a big deal because most of the year I was unable to walk. Going anywhere was a huge ordeal. I sat in a wheelchair in the wheelchair section while everyone else watched from below. And of course Caleb remembers this so well because we went on his birthday. What a great way to celebrate a birthday.

8. Gage preached his first sermon this year for the Catch the Fire youth group. He has been taking a speech and debate class and showed his skills off to the group. He did an amazing job, even shocking a new attendee who thought he had been preaching for a long time. He definitely has his dad's public speaking gift.

7. This year we got to experience owning a home for the first time. And the best part about that was meeting brand new neighbors. All of our neighbors are so nice, but our favorites have become the Zarzars. We found out we have a lot in common and they ended up joining our church this year. So now they are becoming family and we are loving being so close. The kids especially love hanging out with their 3 gorgeous girls who love to worship and love the Lord.

6. This year we had so many visitors after the birth of Cyrus. My sister and her kids came for 5 weeks so we got to be together on the 4th of July. It was the first time we watched fireworks on another day because it rained on the 4th. But we still lit our own in the middle of our cuddlesac with all of our neighbors.

And then for an entire month we had all our moms come with grandma's and aunts too. It was Mum season and we had lots of moms. First came Grandma Helen with Auntie Joan, Auntie Kim, and Uncle Jason. They took care of everything while they were here; since I was just starting to walk again. The house was so clean when they left. I really didn't want them to go. My mom came next and we traveled back and forth to Greensboro to go to a banquet Lindsay was singing in for Hannah's Haven. The day after my mom left, Grandma Debbie showed up. She came at the same time we were having our Bob Jones/Bobby Conner conference. It was so fun to watch her attempting to prophesy for the first time. She loved being here for all the excitement, and we loved having our newly saved mom.

5. Which brings me to number five: Deborah getting radically saved was a very big highlight this year. Stacy traveled to California to do a conference at our old church VCC. Deborah went with him everywhere, getting to hang out personally with Duncan and John. She went forward when Duncan gave an alter call and has truly been transformed. She has continued to go to church on her own and the things (all about the Lord) that come out of her mouth are constantly amazing us all.

4. There was a highlight that only one of us got to experience, but it was a biggie for us and the ministry that we have been a part of all these years. Stacy traveled to Turkey, Dubai, and Kuwait. For so many years we thought about moving to the Middle East to work with Dave and Natalie Hess. It was where we thought we would be by now. But instead God sent us to Raleigh to hook up with Duncan Smith and this led to Stacy having the privelage of personally bringing John Arnott to Dave and Natalie to stay in their house. Who would've thunk it?

3. There was another radical family salvation that took place this year. Watching my little sister Lindsay go from an anxious alcoholic to a radical, worshipping lover of God has been truly remarkable. Early in the year she took a huge step of faith and gave her life over to a Teen Challenge center in Greensboro North Carolina. I cried as I dropped her off there because I knew the place was FULL of God and it was just what she needed. It was a 7 month long program and each visit with her we saw her become freer and freer. And then she took another leap and we watched her get baptized along with many others in a beautiful lake in Greensboro. If we came all the way to North Carolina just for her transformation, it's so worth it to me.

2. What's better than watching one of your boys win a baseball championship? Well I guess watching your family getting saved is better, but it was so much fun being the winning team. Braden will never forget his amazing baseball season and he has a picture in the paper and a trophy on his dresser to enjoy. I should get the most dedicated sports mom award for attending all the games in a wheelchair and even coming days after Cyrus was born. I just love watching him hit the ball. This year Nick also played ball. He braved joining seasoned ball players and his coach said he improved so fast and was one of the most dedicated players on the team.

1. Speaking of being in a wheelchair for half of the year; it was our newest addition that put me in that chair. But he was SOO worth it! Cyrus James Long came on May 20th, 2011 to a very tired Mommy. It still took four months for me to start walking again, but I really enjoyed every moment of having the new little man in my life. God really blessed us with this one. He slept through the night at 6 weeks and even bumped the hours to 10 at 8 weeks. He has been a very easy baby and all of us are madly in love with him. He also came bone disease free and the relief has been healing to us all.

In between

Okay who knew this many years would go by before a new post was submitted. I guess facebook became our new way of communicating. Let's see....what's been missed? Well two babies born and a move to North Carolina. I guess life was a little traumatic to write about for awhile. It has been a stressful few years, but life seems to be settling down again and I think it's time to get back to sharing our lives with everyone.

So I decided to sit down and calaborate some memories from the past few years before all is forgotten. Here's the lists we came up with:

2010

1. We bought our first house! After spending time looking for a new rental (because I was tired of so many critters and being so far away from the church) our realtor suggested we try and buy. We doubted the possibility, but decided to go for it. Everything came together and we moved in just before Christmas.
2. Stacy was asked to become the National Coordinator for Catch the Fire USA. Just days before he would recieve a promotion at AFLAC, Duncan called him for a meeting. It was an impossible request to say no to. He began in September.
3. In October we took a trip with Eagen to Bosnia. We flew into Budapest, stayed at a YWAM base, and took a train to Zenica. It was a whirlwind trip trying to see everyone and also going through all the things that had been left behind. Half of the trip was spent in Montenegro for Zoran's Wedding where Stacy was the best man and I had to try and act normal even though I had recently learned I was pregnant again. Eagen had a lot of fun visiting all the places his brothers had been before he was born. The train was his favorite and mommy's least favorite because I almost lost Stacy at one of the stations and he had to run and jump back on the train.
4. Our trip to Canada was also very memorable. We hiked, swam in one of the Great Lakes, went to a ribfest, saw lots of Amish at the farmer's market, went to a water park, and saw Niagra Falls for the first time. We enjoyed our visit with our good friends, The Remley's. Oh and we had a serious flat tire checking out Allen's job site.
5. A traumatic event that won't easily be forgotten was when we first moved into the new church building. The kids were playing on the playground equipment and one of the girls jumped on top of Gage and broke his femur. So off to the ER again, surgery, and rehab for him. And Eagen broke his femur again shortly after. I still don't know how. We think he tried to step on an apple and slipped and fell. Another Spika cast moment in our life. Yuck!
6. We signed up Braden for baseball in 2010. It was such a fun experience watching the games as a family. We really felt like country folk for the first time as we sat in the warm spring air cheering for The Twins. They lost more games than they won, but we enjoyed every minute of it.
7. Stacy went to South America for the first time with the School of Revival. They spent their time healing and delivering people in Peru. He'll have to fill you in on this fun event since I was at home taking care of the kiddos.
8. We joined a homeschool group that really helped all the boys make some good friends. They have classes in the spring and fall. The boys love learning all kinds of fun things like juggling, medieval warfare, music, finance, and science.
9. Our most amazing testimony of the year was Stacy's trip to Elizabeth City. He went for a weekend conference with a few guys from the church. I had a dream where a man came up to me and told me that Stacy just healed a deaf person so I texted him to pray for the deaf. Two people with that were deaf in one ear were healed! Yeah God! )
10. Stacy also traveled to Nepal to be a part of an ILSOM (International Leaders School of Ministry). It was an amazing trip full of salvations, healings, and great connections. And it was right when he returned home that he learned we were pregnant with baby number 6! It was a shock to all of us. The boys still remember being told at the dinner table. They all laughed and thought we were kidding.

2009

1. It's hard to remember anything before our move to North Carolina. It was such a major event and took up many months of 2009. It was May that we decided to move and we were on our way at the end of July.
2. Our trip over was a big highlight. We got to spend some time in Arizona with Grandma Helen, Joan, Kim, and Jason. And who can forget that Eagen broke his leg the first morning we were there slipping on her very slippery wet cement by the pool. Ouch! We were off to New Mexico next to visit my Dad and Leslie where we had so much fun visiting Carlsbad Caverns and shooting brand new airsoft guns into the dessert. We then drove through Texas, stayed in a hotel in Louisiana, and made it to Georgia the next day. I stayed with my sisters in Georgia while Stacy drove all our belongings to North Carolina to find us a home. When he filled up the U-Haul truck with gas to return it, we had 78 cents left in the bank. We is crazy!
3. Nick turning 13 was a big event of the year. We celebrated before the move and gave him a sword just like we had done for Gage. It was an emotional moment for me especially knowing we were headed out of California and our new church family was really an awesome bunch.
4. But with a move comes a meeting of an entire new church family. We were welcomed by the Smith family, staying at their house until we got the keys to our new house. And our first Sunday was a special one. It was a great service. I'll never forget the boys meeting all the kids their age. They were all girls and all gorgeous! We loved everything about it and were relieved since we had no idea we would like the church when we packed up all our belongings and headed east.
5. There are many events I can sum up in one. All of the many bug/snake/turtle/frog/etc... experiences are very memorable. There was the first week picking tiny chiggers or ticks off of Gage's entire body and then having him react to something all over his hands and feet. He bubbled up all over. We had to buy a snake book just so we could figure out which snakes were safe in our backyard. There were so many! It was boy heaven and mommy nightmare time. A great adventure all around.
6. Early on we visited a farm in the country and came back with a puppy. She followed us all over the farm. Even Stacy was smitten. Moka joined our family for good. She's a smart one that loves people a little too much.
7. Stacy started working for Aflac selling insurance part time. It turned into a full time job in 2010 and it brought some unexpected things into our lives for a short time. Being a part of the rest of society for once was refreshing. We've been world traveling wild missionaries for so long, this job reminded us that we can survive in the regular work force. Stacy is actually a very good salesman and quickly caught the attention of leaders in the company.
8. In 2009 we were privelaged to spend our first ever Christmas with the Elonens. We all met in Georgia and had Christmas with 16 children and 6 adults. It wasn't nearly as wild as expected. The kids get along so well and they all cleaned up after our big Christmas dinner.
9. We also had Grandma, Grandpa, Lindsay, Josiah, and the Skelly's at our house for Christmas after our trip to Georgia. Both events were stressful and wonderful all at the same time. Family is like Chocolate Chip cookies. Too many will make you sick, but when they're not around, you really crave them because you love them so much.
10. I'll end this list with the trauma list... Eagen broke his femur slipping in my bathroom. And Nick fell on the skating rink, passing out because he hit the ice so hard. He couldn't see for awhile and didn't know what was going on. We went to the ER, had a tense 24 hours, and thanked God he was okay days later. Now if you wonder why I avoid ice and all things slippery, you can understand where I'm coming from.....trauma, trauma, and more trauma.

Discovering Yemen

What did these two do for New Year's? Well they headed on another adventure to Yemen where the houses look like something you can eat and the people reminded them of Nepal. They were refreshed and amazed as they experienced more of God.

Even though it was a cold day in Vienna, the animals were out at the zoo. It was an awesome day. We even went into a bat cave where bats flew all around us.  

The last three weeks have been full of adventure for us. Stacy's mom, Deborah, came for a visit and treated us to a European vacation. We went to Croatia, Venice, Austria, Slovenia, and of course various places in Bosnia that we still had not seen. Our favorite was Venice even though we were dissapointed with the food. We walked a lot and got rained on, but it was worth it. What an amazing place! 

The boys really liked the pigeons at the piazza San Marco in the heart of Venice. Well three of the boys liked the pigeons landing all over them; Braden was stradling my leg and screaming when I took this picture. 

Thanks to Grandma Debbie for taking us all over Europe and for coming to visit us here. This picture was taken at our favorite restaurant just five minutes from our house. We all agreed that the service and food here was the best of our whole trip. 

I couldn't help but send this adorable picture of Caleb. He's 3 1/2 now and loves to sing. You can give him any topic (birds, boats, trees), and he will make up a song for you. 

Here are the Long boys enjoying the cool of the evening in Orebic, Croatia. We are quickly learning all the best places to go during the summer. We camped for four days and Stacy taught the boys how to snorkle.  

Stacy found a starfish while snorkling and brought it to the shore to share with the boys. None of them wanted to put it on their face like Daddy. The european vacationers didn't think it was a very good idea either as they screamed in horror and gave looks of disgust. 

With a little help from Kara (our nanny from Canada), I planted my first ever flower garden. A lot of my neighbors help as well by giving me different things to put into it. I quickly discovered how important it is to know what a plant is going to do once it develops. So it won't get any awards from Better Homes and Gardens, but it's been an awesome tool for relationship building with my neighbors.  

We took some pictures for those of you wondering what a new kitchen in Bosnia looks like. The table is much bigger than it looks. It's nice to be able to finally keep salt and pepper on the table and elbows fit quite nicely as well. We are trying to go easy on the boys as the table gets loved with new scrapes and scratches. Thank you Remley's, Brandon's, and friends. 

We mop the floor in front of the dishwasher often to clean up the tears of joy from the sound of our new machine. Thank you so much Canadians. 

It has turned out to be a very warm summer here and we are enjoying playing in the river close by. The boys catch lizards, frogs, and lots of tadpoles. Braden is displaying his current lack of teeth. 

We were so blessed to get away to the coast and see the sights we've been hearing about all this time. This is Dubrovnik, the castle city on the coast of Croatia. It is so interesting to walk around in the middle of it. The picture below this one was taken on the rocks to the far left (where that little boat is). After the picture was taken, the boys decided to jump in and swim in front of the castle. 

We are kicking ourselves because this beautiful coast is just four and a half hours away from us and it took us two and a half years to finally go. Okay well it does cost a bit, but we saved some since we camped. If you all come visit us, we'll take you here, okay. 

Caleb really enjoyed his first ever camping experience. His favorite part was roasting marshmellows on the fire. Some french people joined us because you can't get marshmellows in most of Europe and we had brought some back from the States. It's a good way to make friends. 

This is the spot we camped at for four days. We didn't expect that we would be swimming much but it was so warm the boys didn't care that the water was cold. 

Here we are in Mostar. This is the famous old bridge (except it's not old anymore because it was destroyed in the war and then rebuilt). Our favorite part of this town was the cantalope ice cream. 

Once again our cat had kittens. Our cat's name is Pepper so we decided to name all four kittens after pepper's. This one here is Cayanne Pepper. We also have Chili, Jalapeno, and Dr. Pepper. 

We decided to finally visit Vranduk, a castle just 20 minutes from us. It's really small, but interesting. We had fun getting out of the house for the afternoon. 

Kara took the girls up on the hill behind our house and took a ton of pictures of them. This one turned out great so I thought I'd share it with you. Her name is Munira and she is 16 years old. She had spent her whole life in the orphanage. She looks tough, but is sweet as can be. 

And here's Jerica, our new teammate! She's the one in the white shirt. She's got her arms around Bozana, one of the orphan girls. Jerica is planning on sticking around Bosnia for a long time. 

Our nanny Kara is enjoying hanging out with the girls. Kara is the one right in the middle. She's a great help around the house, and the boys love her. We will be very sad to see her go in June. 

Hey everyone. Spring has arrived and now we can get out and ride our bikes! 

We celebrated Christmas with a few other missionary families at our house this year. We sang english worship songs and tried to sing some Christmas songs, but it's just not the same without the big choirs and celebrations of all the churches in the states. You don't know what you have until it's gone. 

Goodmorning Christmas! A kids favorite morning of the year.