Merry Christmas 2011!

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Christmas update 2010

Dear friends and family,

We pray that you have had a wonderful year and would love to hear from you and learn what God has been doing in your life! We have been quite busy this past year and are so thankful for all that God has taught us. Mark has continued as GM of his sports facility and has really enjoyed interacting with the children and their parents as he oversees and coaches his basketball, soccer, tennis, and tee-ball programs. He has also been serving as one of the pastor/elders at our local church and has enjoyed the ministry opportunities there. We absolutely love our little church family!

Meagan has enjoyed keeping busy at home with Karis and Karlie. They are such a joy and growing so quickly! Karis is a busy 3 three year old who loves to read, sing, bake, and take care of her baby doll. Karlie is a fun-loving 1 1/2 year old who wants to do everything her big sister does :) They are both quite strong-willed, but learning how to obey "all the way, right away, and with a happy heart!" Karis and Karlie are super excited about the new baby girl that will come sometime around the first week in February! They talk about the baby all the time and give Mama's belly lots of hugs and kisses. We can't wait to meet our new little blessing!

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Christmas Update '09

Dear Family and Friends,

We hope you are all doing well and enjoying the holiday season. We thought we would take a minute to share what God has done in our lives this past year and what you can be praying for us about in the upcoming year.

On January 17^th, God blessed us with another beautiful baby girl! Having two little ones has been quite challenging and exhausting, but ever so worth it! Karlie Sue is such a sweetie and we love her so much. She has a very happy, loving little personality, but is very strong willed at the same time. Karlie is just starting to take steps on her own and is getting into everything! Needless to say, she keeps us on our toes :)

Karis is a bubbly 2 ½ year old with boundless energy. She loves to sing and pretty much does so all day long. She is Mama’s little helper, cooking and cleaning alongside her throughout the day. Karis loves her little sister dearly and the girls entertain each other quite well now. Karis often has to be reminded to be kind and share, but for the most part, she is a wonderful big sister. We are so thankful for our sweet little girls!

In March, Mark was blessed to be able to quit UPS and work full-time at the Sports Factory (where he had been a soccer coach the previous year) as director of youth programs. Words cannot describe how wonderful it was to finally have him on a day schedule again! He is now in charge of the entire facility, a position that has been enjoyable, but very challenging. We were very grateful for the promotion, but, as expected, it definitely added more hours and a lot more responsibility. We truly believe that God has provided this job for Mark at this time. However, we would still love the opportunity to move back to VA and be closer to some of our friends and family. :)

Our favorite part about living here is our wonderful church family. We have been members of our church for almost 4 years now and have really grown to love the people there. This has been a good place for us to learn about being the body of Christ. We are enjoying studying and living the Word with them.

All and all, our year has been one of transition and excitement. We are so grateful for our family’s expansion and the avenues through which we have to serve our community and church. Please keep in touch and keep us in your prayers that we will wisely serve our King this coming year.

Love,

The DeLongs

Christmas update 08

Dear Friends and family,

Merry Christmas! We hope you are well and enjoying the holiday season. Although this year has been extremely busy and seemed to fly by, we have enjoyed it, learned a lot, and been incredibly blessed by God’s faithfulness.

First of all, we are ever so thankful for our precious daughter, Karis. We cannot describe how much we love her and what a joy she is to be around. Karis is now a year and a half old and has such a fun, happy, and energetic personality. She wears Meagan out on a daily basis, but we would have it no other way J Learning how to train and discipline Karis though each stage of toddlerhood has really helped us to grow together as a couple. It takes a lot of work to raise an obedient child! Please pray for us as we continue to learn how to train our daughter in godliness.

For those of you who haven’t heard, we are ever so excited to be having another baby girl next month!!!! Karlie Sue DeLong is due January 24^th and we simply can’t wait to meet her. Please pray for a safe and healthy delivery and that Karis will love being a big sister! Meagan continues to update our family blog several times a week, so you will soon be able to see pictures of Karlie there! (http://www.markandmeg04.blogspot.com/)

We have another addition to our family as well-- we adopted an abandoned puppy in July! We think she is part golden Lab and part Shepherd. She is a lot of work, but has a sweet personality and does really well with Karis. And she is even starting to be befriend our kitty now J

Mark completed his seminary training in August and is grateful to not have papers and deadlines to deal with.J The time at Seminary was fruitful and enjoyable, as we learned more about the ministry and the Word. We are exploring what steps God wants us to take next, and hoping to be a blessing to His family. Although we would like to move back to VA to be near family, we are still waiting for the right time and opportunity to do so. Currently, Mark is serving as a director for a child development and soccer program and he continues to work as a dispatch supervisor at UPS. We are planning to make the soccer program his sole job in the near future. There are currently more than 350 children enrolled in his program and many opportunities to bless and serve them and their parents. Most of his coaches are seminary students and they minister well together. We are interested “vocational ministry,” but do believe we have every bit of an opportunity to minister where we are in life at our church, our neighborhood, and jobs. So, where will God lead? We don’t know, but we do know that we must be faithful where we are today.

We hope you have a Merry Christmas and a wonderful New Year!

Love,

Mark, Meagan, Karis, and Karlie DeLong

New Recipe Blog!

Just wanted to let you know that I've started putting my favorite recipes on a new recipe blog. I really needed a way to organize them so that I wouldn't lose them and this seemed like the best way :) The website address is: http://megsfavrecipes.blogspot.com/

http://www.markandmeg04.blogspot.com

As you can probably tell from the lack of posts, I just wanted to officially say that we don't blog here much anymore. Our family blog has moved to: http://www.markandmeg04.blogspot.com. We will probably still post our yearly updates here, but not much more. Our family blog is updated several times a week.

Christmas 07 Update!

Dear Friends and Family,

We wanted to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and give you a quick update on our lives. As most of you know, we have had a very exciting year with the birth of our precious little girl, Karis. She has been an incredible blessing to us and we are just so in love with her! We still update our blog several times a week so family and friends can see how she changes and grows. Meagan has thoroughly enjoyed staying home to take care of her. There is absolutely nothing in the world she would rather do! Mark is still working with UPS, but is thankful to have changed departments. Since Meagan stopped working at the Children's Academy, he also picked up a job teaching soccer to kids. He has had a blast teaching 3 and 4 year olds basic soccer skills. Mark has done well with his studies and is very excited to announce that he will be done in August! We are praying about what job the Lord has in store for him next fall and excited about the upcoming change! Please keep us in your prayers during this transitional time. We love you all and pray that God will bless you in the upcoming year!

Finally here!

On Tuesday, May 22, at 10:01 am, Karis finally allowed us to meet her. She was 8 pounds, 13 ounces, and was 21.5 inches long. She is absolutely beautiful and I can't wait for everyone to meet her! There are tons of pictures on our new baby blog (follow the link to the left), but I don't want to reduplicate so there won't be as many on this blog.

The BIG day is finally here!

Wow, we were surprised! The Lord's timing is great (and at times comical, but that's another story).
We realized it was necessary to go to the hospital last night around 9:30 and were admitted around
11pm. Meg has been a trooper and all has gone well. Karis is not here yet, but we are anxiously
awaiting. She should be here within 3 hrs. Both sets of grandparents have graciously and eagerly
endured a near sleepless night.

Nina and Papa

Nina and Papa, Mark's parents, came to visit us this weekend to keep us company and distract us from focusing too much on the baby that is stubbornly refusing to come :) OK, maybe we were also hoping she would come while they were here, but it was so fun to have them visit and nice to have one more relaxing weekend before everything changes.

Mother's Day 07

This year Mother's Day was so special, knowing that Karis is due in four days. My Mom came down to visit me since I can't travel far from the hospital and we had a wonderful, relaxing weekend. I have been so blessed. My Mom and Mark's Mom have been such excellent examples to me of the kind of mother I hope to be to Karis. They have both continually displayed a kind and gentle spirit, devotion to the Lord, a servant's heart, and sacrificial love. It is a little overwhelming to think that I will be a mother soon and that Karis will someday look to my example as well. But I am grateful to have such wonderful mothers to help me learn how to be a mother to Karis.

Blackey's Adventure!

Booger has a new past-time. He gets up here on his own. Can you guess what my shirts look like?

Anytime now!

The doctor said Karis's head is all the way down and could come anytime! He thinks she'll be long, just like her Mommy and Daddy:) I just can't even imagine what she will look like; its crazy to think that she will be in my arms soon!

Enjoying my new rocker

I love to sit in my new rocker and think about what it will be like to rock my new little one to sleep in it. My kitty is not allowed on the baby furniture but I decided to let him in this once to take the edge off his curiosity.

Flirting with Keaton :)

I was so excited that Keaton actually woke up and was looking at me and making faces at me. He is so cute! Its such fun to be an aunt!

We have a nephew!!!

Here's Mark holding Zachary Keaton Jones, our new nephew. He was born on Easter, weighing in at 8 pounds, 9 ounces and 20.5 inches long. We are sooo excited!

Our pretty crib!

I'm so excited! We finally got our crib in the nursey. Now we are ready for Karis!

HCA shower!

These are my two co-workers who threw me a wonderful shower at my work. We played fun games, had yummy food (including a chocolate fountain :), and I got some really great gifts! Thanks so much Heritage Children's Academy!

My first shower

Here's a pic of Mark and I at our first shower. We were incredibly blessed by our friends' and family's generosity and love. Mark kept us entertained as he kept opening baby things that he didn't know what to do with :) Isn't Karis getting big? its so exciting.

So fun to be an uncle!

We got this awesome Domino truck for Jack, our nephew, for Christmas. He loved it, but I actually think Mark and his brothers enjoyed it more. :)

Christmas 06

Christmas update 06

Dear Friends and Family:

Merry Christmas! Its hard to believe another year has flown by. This year has been difficult at times, but very exciting and rewarding. We are eager to share what we have learned and how God has blessed us this year.

This past semester was undoubtedly the most challenging for Mark academically, as he really dove into the Greek and Bible classes. He took Greek Exegesis classes in both Philippians and Colossians, as well as a class in Methods of Biblical Interpretation. Although these classes truly stretched him, they were incredibly beneficial and he feels much more prepared to minister God’s Word to others. Mark is looking forward to learning more as he takes a full load next semester as well. Meagan took a class on the Ministry of Christian Education to Children, which she greatly enjoyed and looks forward to putting into practice.

Last February, we began attending Messiah Baptist Church, a wonderful church where we have really been able to get involved. Meagan has been playing the keyboard on Sunday mornings and Mark as been given the opportunity to preach several times. We are very excited about this church because we feel like we are given much opportunity to learn the Bible and grow in various ways of ministering to others. We also really love the people in the church who are so willing to share their lives with us.

Although we enjoyed living in our duplex, in July, God made it possible for us to buy a nice little house! It feels like we are out in the country, but it is only about 15 minutes away from school. We are truly enjoying the beautiful area, as well as the much-needed extra space! We even found two little adorable kittens to adopt and have really enjoyed their company.

One of the reasons that we desired a little extra space was because we were praying for God to bless us with a baby. And He did!!!!!!!! Meagan is now about half-way through her pregnancy. We are so excited to share that sometime next May we will have a beautiful baby girl! We know that this will change our lives completely and we covet your prayers and advice as we begin this new stage of life.

Mark has continued to work at UPS part-time. He is excited to be a supervisor now because he feels like he can minister to the guys more easily and get to know them better. It is still grueling work, but we are grateful that God has blessed him there and given him favor. Meagan is still working at the Children’s Academy and she has really grown to love the children there. She will continue to work there as long as she is able. Although she loves her job, Meagan is really excited about stopping once the baby is born and fulfilling her full-time job as wife and mother!

As the new year begins, please feel free to e-mail, call, or write us to let us know how you are doing and how we can pray for you. We look forward to seeing what God has in store for us next year.

Love,

Mark, Meagan, and “Baby” DeLong

Mark's Study Buddies!

I know its hard to believe, but this is how Mark spent most of his time studying for his Greek Vocab exam -- with both cats curled up on him. The kitties love exam time because Mark is actually still long enough at his desk for them to snuggle up to him.