Hooray!

We're finally here- we've made it to the Philippines.  Many of you will already know this by now from facebook and whatnot, but here's a few details about what's been happening since our last post.

We  had the awesome opportunity to stay with some friends (Steve, Jum, and Tyler MacLearn) in Songtan, South Korea, our previous home.  They were so good to put us up for a week.  What was really awesome was that Tyler is 7 months old, just a month younger than Micaiah- so they had some good, quality play time.  We love hanging out with Steve and Jum as well, and on our last day there, Jum cooked us some of her famous Thai food.  We almost didn't want to leave.  Almost.

Micaiah and Tyler having fun!

We also got to spend some quality time with good friends Howard, Terri, Amanda, and Matt Rich.  They're this awesome family who taught us a ton in our spiritual walk while we were living in Korea.  It was great to see them and enjoy their company.  On our last day there, they took us to stay at the Dragon Hill Lodge on the Yongsan Army Base in Seoul.  We had a good time hanging out with them and ate some more Thai food with our friends, Ryan and Abby Dixon (and their adorable son, Ezra).  Afterwards, Micaiah zonked out at the hotel.  She had a long day!

Faceplant snooze!

Up-close face smoosh!

Jess and Micaiah enjoying some in-flight Toy Story 3. 

On the 19th, we flew into Manila.  This was the first time we had flown to Manila via Korean Air, and it brought us to a different terminal than we had previously seen.  We began to wonder if we were in the right airport (haha).  We got through immigration, baggage claim, and customs just fine, and went to wait for our pickup.  We didn't know who was supposed to pick us up, but after a few minutes of waiting, we began to get a bit antsy.  On our three previous trips, we had been picked up from a different terminal, and this one was new to us, so we were beginning to wonder if we were at the wrong place, and if we were going to be picked up at all!  We had no cell phones, and no contact number in case we needed to reach KIM.  That was probably bad planning on our part, but everything's crystal clear in hindsight.  After about 30 minutes of waiting, Colene Long picked us up.  She's the wife of Jeff Long, who is the president and founder of KIM.  It was good to see her, and a relief as well.

Jess and Micaiah outside the YMC, where we are living.

Many people have been asking us what we're doing now, and what our plans are now that we're here.  Welp, we've been put on mandatory relax time.  In order to help us transition well (get banking stuff in order, get a car, get visa stuff taken care of, etc.) we're not going to be taking on any official KIM responsibilities for about a month.  We'll still get to interact with teams and people in the community a bunch, we're just taking it easy for a little while.

Mommy giving baby a bath in our bathroom.

Another question we're getting is, "Where are you living?"  Most of the missionaries through KIM, as well as a lot of teachers at Faith Academy, live in a set of condos just up the road.  Currently, there aren't any available for us to live in; in fact, there won't be any until June, when some of the teachers from Faith Academy pack up and leave.  Until then we'll be in temporary housing at some townhouses that KIM controls.  Currently though, the townhouse we'll be in is being painted.  So, right now we're staying at the YunJin Lyso Ministry Center (YMC).  We have a single room, with a bathroom.  It's not too shabby, and yes, it has air conditioning, though we only run it for a portion of the night to help with costs.  Here are some pictures of the room we're staying in for now.  We'll update you when we go to the townhouses.

One of our first purchases here was a crib for Micaiah.  Not the best
quality, but it will work just fine.  She didn't sleep too well without one
the first couple nights.

Instead of dressers, we have these cubbies to keep our stuff in.  They
work pretty well!

The bathroom, or CR as they call it in the Philippines,
is pretty nice.  A few ants crawling on the wall here and
there, but all in all pretty nice.

That's about it for now.  Keep checking back for more updates on what we're up to.  Can't wait to start telling you about ministry activity we'll be doing.  Things are exciting here!