Ben's 3rd Birthday

Well, I am playing a little catch-up today since I have finished my work and Steve is still gone. I never got up any pics of the kids' birthdays so here are some of Ben's. His birthday was March 1, and we had our friends from Legaspi up for a fun party at the house. I love the mischeivous smile in the 1st pic, followed by the frosting around the mouth in the 2nd one...

We all went to the little pool down the street, rented a 2-story cottage, and enjoyed some pizza together. The kids had fun eating upstairs.
Papa and Grandma Jackson sent some $, and this is part of what we got with it. Ben has fun driving around and honking the squeaky horn. Our "baby" is 3 already!

A Progressive Birthday

Well, I never got any pics up from Kayla's 7th birthday so thought I would put some up now. Mikayla's bday is Feb 16 and we moved on the 10th of Feb so she had little small birthdays in stages - a progressive bday! :)

The 1st one was while Papa & Grandma Jackson were still here. We went up to some hot springs in the mountains and had a blast together.

She got some beginners' cross stitch patterns which she loved, and from Papa & Grandma, she got her very own... Bible!

She loves her new Bible, complete with an embroidered case

from Grandpa and Grandma Hagen.

We didn't have any cake at the birthday at the hot springs so Papa and Grandma sprung for a cake for us all to have a little party together with aunts and uncles and cousins before everyone left.
Mikayla loved her silky gold nightgown from Uncle Andy and Aunt Bethany.

She is growing up so fast.Then on the actual day of her bday, we were swamped with moving in, but we went out for dinner at a little local fastfood joint and ordered some cake for dessert - we even put a candle in it, but I guess my camera was not yet unpacked cuz no pics of that one!

The last party was the one we had promised we would do once we got settled in. It was about a week after her bday, and we traveled down to Legaspi (about 2 hours away) to party with the kids new friends here in Bicol - Carly and Caleb Allen. The kids had a blast together putting on a play and just playing; we are so very thankful for these friends God has provided.
So do you think that wins any awards for the most parties ever? She is a very special girl, and we wanted her to feel that even though her birthday fell at some a busy transition time in our lives. I can't believe she is 7!

Random

Ben was dressed up to be in a "play" the kids were putting on. Maybe I should have named this post "blackmail" instead... :)

Watermelon is in season here, and we are all loving every minute of it. Thought you may enjoy these pics of Ben digging in. Crazy kid!It seems that on any given day someone is "soaking" something or other. Since infection is so rampant here, little scratches or splinters need to be attended to carefully to avoid a more serious situation. So you will often find one of us soaking a foot or both feet in warm water with salt to draw out the dirt or infection. The kids love it cuz they often get to watch cartoons while soaking. Here is a pic of both the boys soaking both feet for whatever reason.

Surfs Up!

Ok, this one is just for fun. We were amazed to discover that there is a cable wakeboarding place not too far from us. You can go kneeboarding or wake, but instead of a boat pulling you around, you are hooked into a cable system that pulls you in a giant circle around a little island. Both Mikayla and Steve got in on the action. I was too busy taking pics and watching the boys - I know, lame excuse. :)

Here is Kayla, getting ready to go...then, success on the 1st try! Go, Kayla! All the pros were very impressed. :)Steve and she doubled for several rounds and had some great daddy-daughter time. They did not have any kid-sized helmets the day we went so one of Mikayla's biggest problems was that the helmet kept sliding down and obstructing her view.
I think Steve got bored with going forwards. Steve even tried a few of the jumps intended for wakeboarding (when you are standing instead of kneeling). And he discovered why they are intended for wakeboarding... :) Apparently, landing on your knees is not very pleasant.
Having this fun place not too far away is just one of the many blessings God has showered on us in our new home here in Bicol.

Scary Electricity: Take 2

Just so you don't miss it - be sure to check out my post from yesterday just below this one - The Grand Tour of our new home!

For all our "regulars" out there, you may remember this pic from a post last year. The state of confusion of the electric wires is unbelievable to us. It is also very common to see multiple wires draped all over people's roofs or propped up to allow cars through. The electrical infrastructure here in Bicol is even more exciting, and we are not at all surprised by the 6 brownouts a day (on average). Often they only last a few minutes but many last several hours or longer. We very quickly realized the futility of trying to keep the electrical clocks on the microwave, etc. set to the correct time. Here a few stories about our scary electricity:

1) Last week I reached up to turn on a lamp, and got a terrible shock. Apparently it had been plugged in "backwards" (don't ask me - something about the lack of a grounding wire). The shock was bad enough that it actually left 2 red, sore spots on my hand where my thumb and finger had touched the lamp. It was sore for more than a week!

2) Steve heard some commotion going on out front yesterday. When he checked it out, he was surprised to see our neighbor smacking the electrical wires along the street with a long bamboo pole. After several smacks, the power to his house kicked back on!

3) Mikayla came in the house crying yesterday saying she had been up in the tree when something jolted her body - like she had been shocked real bad. Now, you have the advantage of knowing the topic of this post so you are inclined to believe her. I did not have the same advantage and found it a little hard to believe that she had been shocked while up in a tree. I suggested to her that maybe the wind had blown the branch and startled her and she jumped. But she stood by her guns so Steve went out to check it out. He discovered that, sure enough, she had been shocked by full 220 current. Apparently, there was some wiring inside the wall next to the tree that had never been used. When Steve had mounted a "Welcome" sign to that wall a few weeks ago, he had accidentally put a screw threw the wires inside the wall, making all the bars on top of the wall (and the metal sign) "live" with electricity! Mikayla had bumped one of the bars and gotten the shock of her life. Poor kid.

The Grand Tour

Ok, here is what you have all been asking for - lots of pics of our new house. As you look through these, praise God with us for the way He has abundantly blessed us with this gorgeous home. After we had done a little house hunting down here, we had resigned ourselves to living in a little hovel; o how weak was our faith! God had the perfect place picked out for us, and it exceeds our every expectation. Praise Him with us!

I am going to start with the room we seem to spend the most time in - the office/schoolroom. Kayla's and Zach's little desks are right next to mine just inside the door. Ben's is a actually just a piece of plywood with a hinge on it so that it can be pulled down from the side of the closet to rest on the side of the filing cabinet. He loves his little nook, and it works great for confinement purposes besides! The room is divided by a large whiteboard and bookshelf with a narrow walkway in front of the filing cabinet that leads back to Steve's little office. Below you can see the kids room (a great friend in Manila made their quilts - aren't they great?). I love the big kitchen with the windows. This pic makes it look pretty dark but it is not bad - the 2 walls you can't see are actually a light blue so that helps. The master bedroom is a very relaxing and breezy room. The door at the back leads to the bathroom.

Here are some of the living room. The first one is actually taken from the front door, and you can see past the living room into the dining room as well. The bottom left one shows the dining room with the big doorway leading to the living area and play room and the smaller one leading to the kitchen. If you look through the large doorway you can see our chest freezer (what a help that is since groceries are not readily accessible!). Just to the right of that is the door to the guest room. I didn't get any pics of the guest room since we don't have any guests right now so it is not set up and doesn't look very inviting. :) The lower right pic is also from the front door, and you can almost see the few stairs leading up to the bedrooms to the right.
Here is where the kids spend a lot of their time - the play room, complete with the infamous rock wall. Behind the play room, you can see the bedrooms - ours to the left and the kids' to the right. A little further down the hall up there is the office. Down below, you can see our breakfast nook (and often supper as well). While it gets hot in the middle of the day, this area right in front of our house is beautiful early in the morning and in the evening. We love to have coffee and breakfast out there together nearly every morning.
Our amazing front yard is the highlight of our new home. The kids absolutely love it, and we have been enjoying it as well. Steve rigged this swing between 2 coconut trees, and it has been a favorite pasttime ever since.
Ok, can't forget 2 very important rooms. :) The master bath is the one on the left in blue; the green one is the kids' and guest bath. Notice the lack of a bathtub - that is very normal here. We actually spend a lot of time in these rooms as well - taking several cold showers every day to try to cool down! :)
Well, that does it for now. Hope you enjoyed the little tour and praised Him with us for the way He has blessed us. We would love to have you come see it in person!!! :)

Family Reunion

Before I post some more pics of our new home here in Bicol, I want to put up a few pics from our family reunion we had just before we moved. My parents came over from the States, and both my siblings came from where they are living here in SE Asia. We had a wonderful time re-connecting and enjoying one another. Here are just a few pics of our time together:

One of the highlights was certainly our time at the beach on a nearby island. The kids had a blast playing with Papa.

Here is great shot of the 5 grandkids together. The other 2 belong to my sis and her husband - my bro and his wife don't have any to add into the mix - yet anyway! :)

Ok, we always have pics of just the kids, so here is one of the 2 of us for a change:

We went to a local rockwall climbing place, and the kids (and dads too!) had fun climbing all over. The only problem was that it was FILTHY so the kids ended up looking like vagabonds. This one of Ben and Gabby tells all. Can you believe these 2 are only 3 weeks apart in age???
We were also able to take my parents to our favorite hot spring place for a wonderful day together.
Hanging out with Papa and Grandma.
I will close these spectacular scenery shots we took during our time together. We praise God for such an amazing opportunity to enjoy these views together with our family.We had a great time as a family and will cherish those memories for a lifetime. Right after they left, things got crazy as Zach had his mouth injury the next day and we moved only 4 days after they left!

We are ONLINE!!!

We are so excited to finally have internet at home again. And many of you, I know, are equally excited because you have been begging for pics of our new home - trying to be patient but failing miserably. :) I am so hopelessly behind with pics (a family reunion, a big move, a few injuries, 2 birthdays, several trips) that this will definitely a process, but just wanted to whet your appetite with these few:Aren't these roses amazing? We moved to Bicol on the 10th of February so I honestly wasn't expecting much of a Valentines Day, but my wonderful husband surprised me with these gorgeous rose bushes for our front yard! I love them.
Here is our front yard, a gift straight from heaven. We absolutely love it, it is so peaceful. At least, that is, before the kids get up... :) Then it is grand central play zone.
I will get busy taking some more pics around the house and get them up soon. Can't wait to hear your comments - have missed you all so much in our 2-month absence from phone/internet.

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.