Happy summer from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia! This has been a year full of family, travel, new work,
and a wedding that brought together two countries, several calendars, and a wonderfully
large number of people we love.
It is hard to believe that I have been living in Malaysia since 2023. Before that,
I spent twelve years in China — long enough that Camden outlasted me there, which is
saying something — and leaving Shanghai marked the beginning of a new chapter.
Camden is now living in New York City with her husband, Lucas. Deha and I have been
together for two years now, and for those we may not have seen recently, this is a
friendly reminder that Deha is not a new character in the story. She has been at the
center of it for quite a while.
Kuala Lumpur is home for now: a slower pace than Shanghai, a jungle city threaded
with highways, trees, food, languages, and people from many different backgrounds.
We are still learning our way around, and we are grateful for the people who keep
finding their way into our lives.
With love,Michael and Deha
00Choose your way in
A little orientation
What brings you here?
Everyone is welcome here. Choose the thread that sounds most like you, or simply read
the whole letter from the beginning. The story stays the same; this just helps you find
the parts you may be most curious about.
Our suggested first stop
Start with the May wedding.
The wedding is the first full chapter: three gatherings, a map of the grounds, and the people who made room for everyone.
In May, our families came together in Kuala Lumpur for a series of celebrations. Rather
than one single event, the wedding unfolded across several days, each with its own mood
and meaning.
01
Eid al-Adha BBQ
We began with an Eid al-Adha barbecue. It was also Deha’s birthday according to the
lunar calendar and a chance to remember the birthday of her late father according to
the Gregorian calendar. Different traditions overlapped in the same warm, joyful place.
02
The Nikah
Friday night was the nikah, the solemnization ceremony. Everyone wore white, giving
the evening a feeling of calm and unity. Beneath all the planning, the most important
thing was simply that we were standing there together, surrounded by our families.
03
The Sanding
Saturday lunch was the sanding, the reception, in the spirit of Raja Sehari — “King
for a Day.” It was colorful, exuberant, and full of the generosity that makes
Malaysian celebrations so memorable.
The local edit · approved frames
Here is the wedding album.
This is the first local edit from the approved wedding pool: a strong Nikah, a
Sanding in motion, and one honest gap where the Eid al-Adha BBQ still needs its
own frame.
Selected frameThe Nikah · from above
The white ceremony, the lawn, and the city beyond.
Selected frameThe Sanding · in motion
Raja Sehari, with the whole garden paying attention.
Ideal frameEid al-Adha BBQ
Still to findA wide, warm frame of the barbecue in motion.
Deha greeting family, food and smoke in the air, and a small visual nod to both her lunar birthday and her late father’s birthday.
Made for the guests
The wedding had a map, a textile story, and a game.
The album is taking shape, and these small designs already tell us a lot about the
weekend: where people went, what they noticed, and what they were invited to learn
together.
WayfindingExplore the Sentosa mapGreat-Grandfather’s House, batik painting, Congkak Corner, the buffet, and more.
The newspaper gave us the first six frames. The selected local photographs now give
the story room to breathe: quiet portraits, family rooms, procession energy, and the
moments when everyone forgot the camera was there.
01
The nikah
White, calm, and full of the kind of attention that makes a room feel held.
02
The sanding
King for a Day: color, ceremony, music, and a procession that deserved its own soundtrack.
03
After the vows
Friends, family, a little nighttime wandering, and fireworks because apparently one ending was not enough.
The next gathering
A smaller New Jersey celebration.
On Saturday, August 29, Michael and Deha will have a smaller and more intimate
ceremony with family and close friends in Michael’s hometown in New Jersey. A tent
will be pitched in the backyard of a dear friend’s home: good people, good food, and
plenty of room for conversation.
Two families, many places, several traditions, and a lot of love finding a way to fit under the same roof.
02Earlier this year · January–April
Before the wedding
The year began with one wedding, then made room for another.
Before May, the year gave us an engagement, Camden and Lucas’s wedding in Hong Kong,
a trip to Kenya, and the ordinary January-to-April rhythm that carried us toward the
larger Kuala Lumpur celebration.
There were turtles on Valentine’s Day, music at the Malaysian Philharmonic, spring in
Kuala Lumpur, and the steady work of becoming a family across two countries. The
wedding chapter begins only when the turtles reach Three Gatherings · 1 May.
January 1 · Kuala Lumpur
We got engaged on Ibu’s birthday.
Open the story behind the ring
The engagement happened on Ibu’s birthday, which made the day feel less like a
private announcement and more like a family beginning. The ring Michael gave Deha
carries its own story, and Camden, Lucas, and Hans being there made the moment feel
connected to the people and places that brought us here.
Early 2026 · Kenya
Then we went to Kenya for Sawan and Maya’s wedding.
Open the travel note
Kenya gave us another wedding, another reason to gather, and a completely different
landscape in which to remember how many ways a family can celebrate love. We spent
time with Sawan and Maya, took the long way through the surrounding adventures, and
came home with a camera roll that deserved its own careful edit. The formal-attire wedding
frame is still in the story; the rest of this little sequence is the safari: elephants,
zebras, a spotted hyena, a lioness, and a couple of good windows into the days themselves.
The formal-attire frame is the keeper from the wedding story; the safari frames are the Drive-sourced preview edit.
Hong Kong · January 2026
Camden and Lucas got married, and the Hauge contingent made the trip.
A January wedding in Hong Kong gave us an early-year reunion: Camden and Lucas at the
center, with Michael, Stephen, Deha, Hillary Becker, Emily, and Jenny all finding their
way into the same set of photographs. It was a very good reason to gather, and a very
good excuse to eat our way through Hong Kong.
Camden and Lucas, surroundedEmily and DehaThe Hong Kong family frame
January → AprilSmall adventures, big calendar energy.
Harry Potter at the PhilharmonicValentine’s Day turtlesSpring in Kuala Lumpur
January → April · Malaysia
Small adventures, reliably documented.
Harry Potter at the Malaysian Philharmonic, a Valentine’s Day turtle-sanctuary detour,
Singapore, spring in Kuala Lumpur, and a friend’s wedding — the kind of life that makes
a camera roll feel like a second calendar.
Harry Potter at the PhilharmonicValentine’s Day, with turtles in mindSingapore, briefly spectacularSpring in Kuala LumpurAnother Kuala Lumpur wedding
January → April · favorites folder
The selfie gallery, because apparently we were there.
We went back to Michael’s favorited photos for the less polished, more honest record:
dinners, skylines, turtles, beach light, and the occasional proof that one of us knows
where the camera button is.
A favorite dinnerSomewhere in KLA turtle-shaped detourUnder the Petronas lightsSunset, no notes
03People and place
Family notes
The Hauge family, near and far.
The Hauge family
Near, far, and still on the same family thread.
Hover over a card, or tap it on a phone, to turn it over. The front carries the update; the back holds one confirmed family photograph—or says plainly when that source is still missing.
Stephen recently returned to Norway with five of his siblings, revisiting places near Bergen that Michael, Camden, Stephen, and Jenny traveled together twenty years ago. More on Camden’s Shanghai work and Snake River Ranch.
The Rahman family
Deha’s family, now part of the Hauge family story.
Ibu, Najwa, and Haziq made the Kuala Lumpur wedding feel like a true family gathering.
The family cards below turn over to the approved Ibu and Najwa crops; Haziq’s individual
headshot is identified in the source archive, but still needs to be brought into this
local working edit.
04Work and craft
Professional updates
What we are building, one useful thing at a time.
Deha and Michael are both building new chapters at work. One is rooted in Malaysia’s
financial institutions and natural hair community; the other is focused on education,
AI, and helping organizations across Southeast Asia work out what comes next.
The projects are different, but the question underneath them is familiar: how can
thoughtful systems help people learn, work, and make better decisions without losing
the human part?
Deha works on the Accounts team at Permodalan Nasional Berhad. A presentation to
the CFO led to her team receiving its largest learning and development budget yet,
supporting automation, workflow improvements, and thoughtful use of AI.
Curly Malaysian is a community and educational platform for Malaysians with curly
hair. Deha is building it in public through daily videos, product reviews, curl
science, and stories about Malaysian beauty and self-expression.
After LearningLeaders and Edda, Michael is now focused on Pertama Partners: helping
organizations across Southeast Asia understand, adopt, and implement AI through
training, strategy, and practical hands-on work.
Next chapter04
Deha · Community leadership
As HITCHED! recorded, Yayasan Dayadiri (YDD) supported Deha as a scholar and asked
her to return to its community as Master of Ceremonies for the 2026 annual meeting.
Not a participant. Not a panellist. The MC: the person who holds the room, sets the
tone, and represents the alumni community with poise.
Giving back
HITCHED! · YDDFrom scholar to master of ceremonies.
Deha is building a curl community one video at a time.
Curly Malaysian is where Deha brings together curl science, product reviews, daily
experiments, and the confidence to let Malaysian curls take up space. Michael is a
very enthusiastic audience of one — and occasionally a camera assistant.
For much of our adult lives, China was home. Now Kuala Lumpur is home, and it has been
a meaningful place to begin again. It is a slower pace than Shanghai, a jungle city
threaded with highways, trees, food, languages, and people from many different
backgrounds.
Deha is teaching Michael more about Malaysia every day, while Michael tries to keep
his Mandarin from disappearing entirely. Life here has given us a useful reminder that
a family can be spread across a very large map and still feel close when people keep
showing up for one another.
That is the feeling we carried through the Kuala Lumpur wedding.
The view from 22 to 79
Same tower. Different floors.
Michael’s new office is in the same building as Deha’s gorgeous office: Merdeka 118,
the PNB-owned landmark in the heart of Kuala Lumpur. It is one of those city facts that
makes a family letter feel slightly like a skyline tour — and, at the time of writing,
the second-tallest building in the world.
Michael works from a closet on the 22nd floor. Deha works on the 79th. So when Michael
says he looks up to Deha’s creativity, positivity, and many other excellent qualities,
the joke is now inconveniently literal. He looks up from his closet; she looks down from
an office that is, frankly, much more gorgeous.
Merdeka 118 · owned by PNBPNB-owned · Kuala Lumpur · 22 floors apart in spirit
Two floors, two little windows into the workday
The photo inserts are waiting for the exact frames.
We have left the composition ready for Deha’s office view and Michael’s July 15 closet corner so the final photos can drop in without changing the story.
Photo to confirmDeha · 79th-floor view
Deha’s gorgeous view from the office floor
Photo to confirmMichael · 22nd-floor closet
White corner wall, no desks, no windows — a very honest office portrait
06Selected scenes
A small photo essay
Raja Sehari — King and Queen for a Day.
A distinct set of frames from the wedding archive: the rings, the garden, the people,
and the Kuala Lumpur skyline that watched the whole weekend unfold.
01
The ringsFriday night, all in white
02
Raja SehariKing and Queen for a Day
03
Michael, among friendsThe Sanding celebration
04
Family, togetherDeha and Michael with family
05
The wider familyOne of the rooms that made it ours
06
The viewKuala Lumpur after dark
Moving pictures
Some moments refused to stay still.
These two reels belong to Michael’s Instagram. They are presented as quiet, clickable
film cards so nobody gets startled by unexpected audio; once the local video files are
approved, the same cards are ready for scroll-triggered playback at a gentle 45% volume.
A few more frames from the working archive: recovery, honeymoon water, dinner with
friends, wedding gifts, and Deha quietly building the next thing. The Polaroids are for
the moments that feel especially like us.
May · wedding week
White clothes, big feelings, and a surprisingly photogenic recovery plan.
Achilles recovery, with supervisionDeha modeling in KLCarvin Wong × Tiara AwatiefThe nikah, in whiteThe laugh that made the frameAfter the vowsOnward, togetherThere was cakeOpen HITCHED! ↗Download the issue ↓
June · honeymoon and home
Scuba certification, a few excellent meals, and Dad in Shanghai.
The best June smileStill in wedding modeHoneymoon, first courseHoneymoon, second courseBetween tripsCertified, eventuallySteve visits ShanghaiProof of certificationBreakfast at home
July · the next little chapter
Ice cream, wedding gifts, friends, and Deha making the room brighter.
Ice cream is always a crowd pleaserDate nightWedding giftsDeha looks cuteDeha, building the next thingA very good dinnerFriends in ShanghaiLearning together
07A thoughtful appendix
People & places
A few good links, chosen with care.
These are the people, projects, organizations, and places that make the story easier
to continue. The list is deliberately short.
Downloadable artifactHITCHED! · The full 2026 wedding newspaper
Read the complete sixteen-page issue online, or download it to keep: the love story,
ceremony guide, profiles, and photographs from the May celebrations.
A Hauge and Resor family cattle and land operation in Wyoming.
Visit ↗
HF
One more gathering · New Jersey
RSVP to Michael & Deha’s USA wedding.
August 29 · 11:00 a.m.–5:00 p.m.
An intimate affair with close friends and family. 1920s attire requested: break out the old
suit or dress you have not worn in a while. Dress dapper or demure — we will keep it easy,
in true Jersey fashion. Late breakfast and lunch will be served, with a few drinks here and
there, and we will be finished before dinner so you can make it home that evening.
We recommend staying in New Jersey or New York City. We will be in Brooklyn the evening of
the 29th and on the Lower West Side for a picnic the morning of August 30th. If you cannot
make it out to New Jersey, not to worry — we hope to see you in NYC instead.
RSVP destinationThe USA celebration is intentionally smaller and more intimate than the Kuala Lumpur wedding. The current RSVP button opens the wedding site.
Contact informationThe contact button opens a non-submitting form preview. It does not send data anywhere until the private destination is confirmed.
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Michael + Deha
For cards, packages, a voice note, or the occasional “are you awake?” message.
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