Hello again...

...from hot and humid Bicol! We are gradually settling in here, and our new house is becoming a home. We got pictures and curtains hung a few days ago, and that really helped. Our kitchen cabinets are supposed to be put in today so that will help a lot (hard to feel very settled when the pots, pans, dishes, and food is stacked on the floor!) I will post pics on the blog as soon as I am able. We have been taking some banana bread to our neighbors and have had a wonderful time beginning to get to know them. We are so thankful for how friendly and kind they have been to us - one family even sent us some food over one evening! Another is interested in helping us connect with an Agta guide to help us get up into the mountains to teach the Word in the more remote areas! God is so good!

Please continue to pray for the phone/internet situation. We are currently checking into other possibilities since the big company here does not seem to have a game plan or a care in the world about getting a new line to replace the stolen one in our area. Everything moves incredibly slowly here so when they are saying they "hope" to have one in March but don't have a plan for making that happen, March does not seem very probable to us. In the meantime, if you need to contact us, you can still email us; we try to head into an internet cafe about once a week to take care of emails. Or, feel free to call us on our cell phones - we would love to hear from you. Just keep in mind the time difference please - we are 14 hours ahead of CST (for example, if it is 9pm CST, it is 11am the next morning here). Once Daylight Savings starts, we will be 13 hours ahead.

I will write the number exactly as you should dial it from the States:

Steve - 011.63921.660.5374 Jen - 011.63906.228.0917

Also, we now have a PO box down here in our little town.

Here is our new address:

Steve and Jen Hagen

PO Box 5572

Iriga City, Bicol

Philippines
Please contact us before you send a package to this new address so that we can check to see if there are any restrictions/fees we should be aware of 1st.

Thanks to all of you who sent birthday wishes to Mikayla. We found a nice little pool just down the street (God definitely provides abundantly more than we can ask or think!), and we went swimming as a family in the afternoon then to a little restaurant in town for supper - complete with chocolate cake! Then tomorrow we are headed down to a city a couple hours away for her to see a friend (remember the family whose home was flooded in the typhoon in December?) and celebrate with her as well.

On Monday the 26th, Mikayla and I (Jen) will fly up to Manila to attend a Home Schooling Conference there. We are looking forward to it immensely - it is so good to get a chance to connect with other MKs and moms. Mikayla will be doing IOWA testing all week, and I will be in meetings. We come home to the boys on the 4th of March. Thanks for praying for safety and health as we travel and that Steve and the boys will have a good week while we are away.

Thanks again for your faithful prayers and support. This has been a very difficult move, but God continues to provide our every need; and we praise Him for it. Please pray with us that we would learn what we need to through the tough times. Praise Him with us for the ways He continues to show Himself to us in the midst of it all.

(I will try to get some new pics up soon!)

Hello from Bicol!

Hello from an internet cafe in the Bicol province in the Philippines! We arrived safely with all our belongings (only a few things broken despite the long bumpy journey!) on Saturday the 10th and have been busy ever since with unpacking and setting up the house. The "To Do" list has been overwhelming, but we keep whittling away at it and are making headway - though at times it does feel like we are losing ground. :)

In addition to unpacking, we have been doing things like changing locks, putting door knobs and handles on doors, fixing leaks, making shelves, extending the fence around our house, installing curtain rods and blinds, having some furniture made, and patching holes in the screens. We have also been busy trying get air conditioners installed (it is unbelievably hot down here - it was 95 this morning in the school room with 100% humidity, and this is the cold season so we would like to have the option of cool air once hot season hits!). Oh - and Steve and the kids have all been quite sick with cough/cold/fever thing. This week has been nuts!

When we first checked out this house back in November, we were told we could have DSL connected to our home no problem. We have stayed on top of it, even applying for phone and internet weeks before arriving down here. And the report last week before we arrived was that we would have it hooked up the day after we moved in. However, we were just told that the line to our neighborhood was stolen in December so it will be at least March before we have internet at home! That was tough news as we so enjoy staying so closely connected with loved ones in the States. Please pray that we would be patient during the wait and stay encouraged. And please keep sending encouraging little notes that we can get when we do get a chance to log on at an internet cafe.

We really like our little neighborhood here though, and we think we will really like our home once we get it set up. Please continue to pray for us as we get settled and begin to develop relationships with our new neighbors and then as we venture into the mountains to begin to develop relationships with the Agta as well. Our primary need right now is strength and peace in the midst of chaos.

Thank you once again to all of you who have sent us encouraging emails and posted comments on our blog - we so needed to see those. PLEASE keep them coming. Oh - and tomorrow Mikayla turns 7! Please pray for a happy birthday despite life being upside down and no friends here yet.

Miss you all!

The Adventure Continues

Ok, this post is not for the faint-of-heart. We said goodbye to my family on Sunday then drove home late Sunday night. Monday morning we got busy with packing (we move on FRIDAY!!!). Zach had a Dr. appt scheduled to check out his leg to be sure it is healing ok in Manila at 4 pm. While we were getting ready to leave, he was playing in the living room and managed to bash his face into the coffee table. Blood started pouring from his nose and mouth. Once we could get a little closer look, it was clear that he needed stitches. He was bleeding from just above his upper teeth as well as from a jagged, gaping cut that went clear through his lower lip. We jumped in the car to head to the ER, leaving the other 2 kids with the helpers. On the way there, the bleeding slowed down so we decided to go ahead and run up to Manila to the better hospital (coincidentally the same one where his appt with the orthopedist was scheduled). He was in a lot of pain, and it was a noisy drive, but we made it to the ER safely by 3 pm. After the Dr looked at him, he immediately called the plastic surgeon and scheduled Zach to have reconstructive surgery at 7 pm. Since we had some time to wait, we decided to keep our appt with the ortho and went upstairs to his office. Thankfully, his report was encouraging and he is quite certain that Zach will be back to normal in a few months. Long story short, Zach was in surgery for more than 2 hours. The plastic surgeon said it looked like his lip had exploded from the inside. Apparently, the cut you can see from the top (check out the pics) is nothing compared to the damage that was lower on his lower lip. The cut went clear through his lip so he got 3 stitches on the outside of his lip, and the Dr. said he lost track of how many inside - he measured it in the number of hours it took to reconstruct the mess. Zach had a very difficult time coming out from anesthesia and it was a long night, but we are all home now, and he is doing ok.

Meanwhile, we are crazily trying to continue packing and getting ready for our move. Mikayla and Steve are at the dentist now for a final check up on her teeth. Then tomorrow (Wed), we drive up to Manila to see my parents one last time as they stop through Manila on their way home. We will stay overnight as Zach has a check up with the plastic surgeon on Thursday morning. At that time, we will find out if he found anyone in Bicol qualified to take the stitches out. If not, then Zach and I may end up going to Bicol a few days after the rest of the family. Then we will get home Thursday afternoon and the movers arrive Friday morning at 8. We will supervise the loading for a couple hours then start driving to meet the crew down there the next morning after we get a little sleep.

As you can see, we definitely need your prayers during this crazy week. Praise God with us that there were no fractures in his face, that the plastic surgeon was able to put him back together, and that he is doing well today. Pray that it would heal quickly with no infection and that there would be someone in Bicol who can take the stitches out. Pray for our whole family in the chaos of this week for endurance and peace in the midst of turmoil.

Here are a few pics - if you can stomach them:

Like I said, the visible cuts here are apparently not nearly as bad as the gash down lower, but this gives you an idea. Poor kid! We have sure been taking advantage of our medical insurance this past year - a whole lot more effectively than I would like!

Appreciate your prayers!

Into the Volcano

After we got back from the beach, we decided to take a trek into the nearby volcano. We have been wanting to do it since we arrived in country, and our friends were game for the adventure. We drove about 1/2 an hour first to the nearby lake, Taal Lake. Then we hired 3 VERY small bangkas (those same outrigger boats - except these only seat a few people). The trip TO the volcano was rough enough - the trip back was absolutely unbelieavable. The waves were massive, and the boats were tiny - a bad combination! Nothing like a near-death experience to bond people together, and we feel very bonded to Jonathan and Kelley now! We were drenched but happy to be alive when we finally made it back from our trek. But that is telling you the end of the story first (which may be just as well for those grandmas and grandmas-at-heart out there)...Once we landed on the volcano (Taal Volcano for all you volcano buffs out there), this was the sight we saw. That is the rim of the volcano popping up behind the trees. We had to hike up to the top, then down into the volcano - oh yeah, then back again. Quite the trip with 4 little ones. :)
And we're off! Our friend, Walter, came along to help us carry Zach (he couldn't very well hike with a broken leg). We also hired a guide to show us the trail up there. What we didn't know is he had not been up there himself for more than a year, and we were coming up the opposite side from where tourists normally come - so the path was very questionable.
Steve carried the pack, and he and I switched back and forth carrying Ben. As you can see, the pack and Ben was quite the load. Mikayla did a great job hiking the whole day without help.The closer we got to the rim of the volcano, the denser the cogan grass and thorn bushes became. The path had become overgrown, and we ended up just clearing a path as we went. It was hard, painful work, and we all ended up with dozens of thorn scratches and grass cuts before it was all said and done. They held a blanket over baby Kiran to protect her from the underbrush. Mercifully, she slept through the whole ordeal. We definitely got more of an adventure than we had bargained for. We all felt like this at some point or another as we were skewered by a thorn or sliced by a sharp piece of grass. Poor guy. After we arrived back at our car after a very long day, Steve took the bags of Zach's cast - and then pulled a large thorn out of his toe. His response? "So THAT'S why it was hurting so bad!"

When the thorns weren't too thick, we tried to let Ben walk a while on his own, but the grass swallowed him alive.

Once we battled our way to the top of the ridge, we were rewarded with this amazing view into the volcano itself. It is called Crater Lake, and it is located inside the volcano.
The view down into the volcano was amazing, but as we stood on the ridge, so was the view back the other way, over the path we had just come and across the lake. You can see the view behind our friends in the pic below. They were such good sports about the whole clearing-a-path-through-the-thorns thing. Once we worked our way along the ridge for nearly an hour (the path the guide was going to take down into the volcano was too overgrown so we had to hike along the rim to get to a different one), we came to a little clearing. Kelley and I decided to stay there with the little ones (Kiran and Ben) and get lunch going while the rest hiked down into the crater. Here they are wading in the very hot, sulfuric water in the crater. In some places, it was too hot to stand in; but in some you could wade. On the other side of the lake, you can even swim in it!
What an amazing experience for our kids! Talk about an educational field trip!
I had gotten a fire going so once the crew hiked back up to the ridge, we enjoyed a great lunch of hotdogs and chips. The view from our picnic spot was spectacular.
We had such a wonderful time with our friends while they were here; it was such an encouragement to us in the midst of some tough times. The beach was amazing, and the Taal Trek an adventure we will never forget.

At the Beach!

Hello again! Sorry to it's been so long...

Our New Years went great - hope yours did as well. On the 5th of January, some close friends of ours who live in South Asia arrived for a visit. We had an absolute blast with them and their new baby daughter. The day they arrived, we drove down to the pier about 1 1/2 south of us and took a small ferry (a bangka outrigger boat) over to the island of Mindoro. The waves were pretty big, and the trip was an adventure, but we arrived safely to a gorgeous beach getaway. We had a wonderful time there - exactly what we needed.

Our enjoyment of the time was tempered though when we found out that Gizmo, our beloved golden lab, was sick again with a liver disease he he gotten several times because our neighbor keeps throwing sick cats over the wall into our yard (yes, we have talked to him, and, no, it hasn't helped). Our coworker went and bought the expensive meds for Gizmo again and started treating him. However, our helper had failed to tell us right away when Gizmo started getting sick so the disease was further advanced, and the meds didn't help this time. Gizmo died before we got home from the beach. He was a wonderful guard dog and a real friend to all of us. We miss him.

That being said, we did have a great time at the beach, and here are some pics.

Here is the bangka we crossed the channel in. Exciting!

This is the sight that greeted us as we pulled up to our resort. Isn't it amazing?

Zach's casted leg made a trip to the beach a little more interesting to say the least. This is how he spent most of the time - with a plastic bag over his cast, then a sock over that, then pajama pants over that to try to keep the sand out. Then he sat and played in the sand for hours on end. He has been such a little trouper about this whole thing - such a great attitude. He didn't even complain as his siblings jumped the waves while he just sat and watched. What a kid!

We brought a kite with, and the kids had a blast with it. I love Ben's smile in the pic above. While we were there, Zach hit the 4-week mark with his cast and was allowed to start walking on it again. He celebrated by flying the kite.

Before, Ben has been a little nervous of the waves. This time he was fearless and kept running in and out of them, having a ball. Go, Ben!Climbing is life for Zach, and he has been denied for a month now. As soon as he was allowed to walk on his cast, he was climbing again - all over the rocks and even up in trees. He looked pretty funny climbing while hauling his leg behind him, but he had a blast.
Our kids also had fun having a baby around again. This is Zach with our friends' precious little girl, Kiran. Between the 3 kids, I think the question, "Can I hold her now?" was a continuous one throughout the weekend.We bought this raft so that Zach could ride the waves at the beach. We bundled him up in garbage bags and tape a couple times so he could take a ride, but he ended up being nearly as happy just playing in the sand or climbing on the rocks. The other kids enjoyed the raft as well though - this is Ben taking a turn.
Mikayla wanted to pose for some beach pictures - her idea (but I was not complaining!) This one is my favorite. Our little girl is growing up so fast!
Ok, so if you are not already convinced that you simply must come visit us in the Philippines, these next few pics will change your mind. How can you say no? Wonderful people AND breath-taking scenery... go book your tickets! :)

What an amazing weekend! Check back in a few days for pics of our hike INTO a volcano.

In the meantime, please be praying for our families in central Missouri as they are currently being slammed by a severe ice storm. My (Jen's) mom and grandma are home alone as my dad is at a speaking engagement out of state. Please pray for their safety and warmth as they are supposed to lose power in 0 degree temps. Also, my parents are supposed to leave out of St. Louis next week to come here for a visit. Please pray with us that this does not affect their trip!

We Have a House!!!

We have a house!!! We are so very thankful. Thank you all for praying with us in this. Steve and our business manager were able to meet with the owner on Saturday morning, and the meeting went great. We will be able to move in on schedule (barring any delays in the "fixing up") in February. It has been a long 3 months of searching, and we are ecstatic to have a home to move into now.
Steve is on his way home now and hopes to arrive by 10 pm. Please pray for safety as he travels and also that he would start feeling better as he is currently having some stomach trouble (par for the course when you travel here and sometimes end up eating at less-than-sanitary places). Tomorrow morning (the 31st), we will leave to spend New Years a couple hours from here with some friends. We hope you all have a wonderful New Years! You enjoy your chilly evening by the fireplace, and we will enjoy our lounging outside on a pleasant tropical evening under the coconut trees! :)
Praise Him with us for our new home!

House Update

Just talked to Steve on the phone. Thank you to all of you who prayed at 6 am CST, and please keep praying. The owner has not yet arrived in Bicol; he is currently enroute. However, they were able to talk to him on the phone at the appointment time, and the phone call went very well. He is very interested in meeting with us which is a great sign; Filipinos are non-confrontational so if he wasn't interested, he would rather avoid meeting than have to say it in person. Steve is very encouraged that it looks like it will work out. That being said, he now has to wait another day so he can meet with the owner tomorrow morning at 9 am (that is 7 pm CST on Friday evening). He hopes to be able to leave Iriga, Bicol by noon which puts him home late tomorrow night, probably after 10 pm. Did I mention we leave the following morning to spend New Years with some friends a few hours away? Never a dull moment around here... :) Thanks again for continuing to pray with us that this house would come through. We know if it doesn't, it is because He has another plan, but it would sure make life less stressful if this one were the one. I am sure you understand.

Hagen Family Christmas

Ok, I admit that the next few posts are mainly for the grandparents and other equally-interested parties. So all of you out there who don't have the time to read about the Hagen family Christmas traditions, please feel complete freedom (free of guilt :) ) to skip this post (but if you have not see the post I did about Mikayla and my trip recently, you should definitely check it out - located after the Christmas ones). Also, if you opt to skip this post, be sure to check back with us in a few days for a new one; I try to update fairly often. A few years ago we started the tradition of sleeping "under the Christmas tree" (translation: in the living room) every Christmas eve as a family. We set up the mattresses, the kids get to open 1 present (new pajamas) and watch a Christmassy movie while eating popcorn and drinking hot cocoa. Family fun for everyone! :)
When the kids wake up the next morning (they made it to almost 7 am this year!), they open up their stockings that are stuffed with little toys, treats (like grapes - treats change once you get overseas) and a little candy too.
After the stockings, we do living room clean up and get dressed then have coffee cake for breakfast. Then Steve tells the Christmas story (this year Ben did somersaults during most of it) and we talk about the real meaning of Christmas.

Then it is time for presents! We have tried year after year to keep the number of presents "reasonable", and I think we finally pulled it off this year (being so far away I think helps with this). Here's a pic of the kids with their loot.
After opening presents as a family (this year it culminated with a treasure hunt for the kids to find their big presents from us - see the following posts for what those were), we do Christmas on skype with video with grandparents in the States. Then we just enjoy family time the rest of the day, including a dinner and an all-important nap. Oh - and we answer the door a LOT. Caroling here takes on a whole new meaning - people come to your door all day long, some singing, some just saying that they are "Christmassing" (in Tagalog of course). You have to go give them money or food or they will stay there all day calling out. So our front door gets quite the work out all day as well.Well, there you have more than you probably wanted to know about our Christmas. Do you have any family Christmas traditions you can share with us?
Hope you all had a very Merry Christmas!

Our new house

Unfortunately, I am not talking about our new home in Bicol (though we do appreciate your prayers about that this week as Steve is down there right now attempting to meet with the owner of the home we would like to rent). I am talking about the new doll house Steve and I made for Mikayla for Christmas. I am sure most of you couldn't care less (fair enough) but some of you asked to see pics. I had trouble loading this one with the next post (where you will find some more if you want to see them) so here it is.

Our Christmas

Steve and I worked together in our free evenings for the last 2 months to make Mikayla a doll house for her Polly Pockets (a little kind of doll for all of you who don't have a little girl :) ). Mikayla absolutely loved it, and we had a blast making it.She even got 2 Polly cars for Christmas - one from the Raush family in Kansas and one from our coworkers here. She was thrilled.
The boys got matching "twist cars". You just twist the steering wheel back and forth and the car moves. The 2 have been having a blast racing around our house and have had only a few collisions in the process.
The kids got these foam disc guns from my (Jen's) parents, and they have been chasing each other around the house with them ever since. Ben didn't quite have them figured out at first though - he kept shooting himself in the face.
After all the present fun, we sat down to a family dinner of grilled salmon and twice-baked potatoes and salad and more. It was a great family day.
We hope you all had a wonderful Christmas as well, celebrating our Savior's birth with loved ones.

Our trip

I had a few extra pics that I couldn't fit on the next 2 posts. This first one is a great shot of the 2 cousins enjoying some time together under the fountains. For more pics of our time with them and how it went, check out the next post. Aren't they adorable? This one is of us at the top of a tower shaped like the CN tower (tall and skinny with a ball at the top) that overlooks the awesome twin towers. For more pics of these amazing towers, check out the pics in the post after the next one.
Hope you all had a great Christmas celebrating our Savior's birth with loved ones. Ours was a quiet time at home with "just us". We were very much in need of some down time as a family after all the recent craziness. I will try to get some pics up of our time soon. Love you all!

Fun with the cousins

It had been more than 18 months since we had seen my sister and her family so their 2-year-old did not remember us, and we had never met their baby. But we all had a great time together. We went swimming...Look at her jump!
and played at the playground...
and tried to duck through the fountains by the towers (see the next post for pics of the amazing towers)
and read LOTS of stories - actually, just the same stories repeatedly...

and made a cool gingerbread house...
and worked hard too.
Mikayla was such a massive help; I was so very glad that she came with me. She worked her little tail off - doing dishes, switching laundry, changing diapers, dressing and bathing her cousins, and more! I think my sis and her husband are now considering adopting a 6-year-old... :)

We had a great time as mother and daughter on our trip. I am so proud of our little girl - who's not so little anymore.