Our family is always ready for a spontaneous adventure or for circumstances to throw a bit of a curveball. This can be illustrated in one of our first trips together when we went out to Guadalupe Mountains National Park in west Texas. We originally had planned to hike up this beautiful canyon and camp up on the top the following day.
However, we actually got out to the park ahead of schedule and decided on a whim to try to quickly hike up the highest peak in Texas that afternoon. We geared up quickly and managed to get to the summit right at sunset (it was so gorgeous) and then came back down in the dark. Because we had been hiking so fast, our legs were jelly the next day, so we delayed our hike up the canyon by a day and went up to Carlsbad Caverns for what was supposed to be a relaxing day exploring the caves.
But Murphy’s Law struck and the elevators out of the caverns were broken, so we had to hike out which was quite a climb. Our sore legs were toast at that point, and we decided we didn’t think we could do our planned canyon hike. So, we decided to be spontaneous and drive out to Flagstaff, Arizona just to check it out.
We had a nice lunch at a Route 66 diner, threw some snowballs at each other since there was still some melting snow up there and then headed back home. Now, with kids, we have to be a bit more planned out than that, but our kids still love to join us on our crazy adventures and make some spontaneous memories together as a family!
We met through friends in December of 2011, and we connected over adventures. At every gathering that we ran into one another, we ended up talking nonstop. We just really clicked, even though I only saw him as a friend. We finally went on our first date at the end of Feb 2012, and by the beginning of May, we were talking about getting married. We got married in November of that year.
We have had our share of conflicts, of course, but we are really good about working through them. We both recognize that a lot of conflict stems from miscommunication, so we try to work through that. We love to just be together, going on hikes, exploring new places. We are a team and work well together overall. We play board games, work on puzzles while listening to podcasts or audiobooks together.
As a family, we love to be outdoors doing a variety of activities or inside crafting, playing games/doing puzzles, or watching a movie together. When outdoors, we might be sledding, throwing snowballs, or making snowmen in the winter or camping, fishing, hiking, picking fruit, visiting the beach, going for a bike ride, playing sports, doing yard work, or just sitting around the fire eating grilled food in the backyard during the summer (we tend to be very active).
With crafting, all of the kids love to make cards or draw, and the grandparents got them a rock tumbler this year and we have been exploring polishing rocks for making jewelry or just cool gems (they love collecting rocks on our adventures).
Individually, Clayton loves to stay active by playing sports, going cross country skiing, or playing disc golf. I also enjoy DIY projects and woodworking. I have been working on treasure boxes for the kids and a centerpiece for Kristen in my garage workshop.
Kristen loves to stay active by playing volleyball and softball in local leagues or socially or just hang out in the hammock in the yard with a good book. She also loves to host ladies craft nights to catch up on all those projects that fall through the cracks and play board games with friends.
Gender: A Boy or A Girl
Ethnicities: Any Race and Ethnicity
Age: Newborn to 2 Years Old
Total of: 1 to 3 Children or 2 Siblings
We Live In: Holland
Our Faith: Christian
Pets: Dog(s)
Kids Already: Three Children Now
Child Care Plan: Stay-at-Home Parent Â
We are currently pretty far away from both of our extended families, but we do have good relationships with them overall. There are a few complicated relationships as there are with most families, but even those are pleasant relationships and just more low key.
We love to visit family while traveling around on road trips and catching up with them is always fun! And cooking for large family gatherings on holidays is always a blast (Kristen’s brother does awesome barbecues for her family often…yum)!
Because we are separated from family by distance, we do often rely more on our close friendships and we have a great support network of friends including a lot of good friends from church, some neighbors, some school friends and family from the kids, colleagues from work, and even friends from around the country who visit.
It is so good to have a community of solid folks that we can call on for simple things like borrowing a tool to complicated things like watching our kids on short notice if needed. And we love hanging out doing activities together or even serving together at an event.
We currently live in a great family neighborhood with a bunch of old growth trees. There are often kids riding bikes or skateboarding down the street or playing sports in someone’s yard in the shade of the giant trees. One of us will often be outside doing yard work or relaxing in the hammock to soak in the fresh air and monitor the goings on.
When we need them a little closer in while we’re working on project inside, our backyard has swings, a small playscape, a digging pit, and a chunk of grass for them to run around in. The neighborhood is pretty active overall, but very safe and its pretty quiet outside of fair week when we can hear the motocross and monster trucks from a couple streets away (but it is fun to go to some of those events too).
We are very happy in our current home, but all of the kids have a dream to run a farm, and we have enjoyed more rural living in our pasts as well. So, while we will never likely be able to afford a whole farm, we have talked about trying to move at some point so we can have a couple acres and raise chickens and/or some other animals. We will see how the economy changes to see if that will be feasible in the coming years.
With regards to education, we know that every child is different and there is no one size fits all. We do our best to make an education plan that works best for each individual child while also keeping our family running smoothly overall.
We are currently homeschooling our school age children because we feel that we can offer them a more well rounded education and more one-on-one attention right the moment. If this begins to shift or change in the future, we will certainly consider other options.
Additionally, we do pursue other programs that we think will edify our children and aid in their development. For instance, we utilize the Flex programs offered here in the state of Michigan to allow our kids more options in PE, music, and art while also enrolling them in Spanish immersion classes and outdoor education programs which give them a broad depth of experience and educationally rich activities.
We would probably be considered a moderately strict family when it comes to discipline and we work to incorporate both positive interventions and negative consequences.
In addition, we always strive to make discipline restorative and help our children see the heart behind why they might be doing the things they are doing as well as why the consequences for these actions are what they are.
We also strive to ensure that rewards and consequences are fair for each child individually according to their development and personality as well as from child to child.
We never want one child to feel like they are privileged over another or treated more harshly than their siblings. When these issues come up, we listen and try to find a good way to ensure that each child feels heard and is comfortable with the outcomes.
We are both very committed to the truth of Christ in our life, are active church members in a local, non-denominational church, and are working to raise our children in a God honoring manner! We do also attend small group weekly, pray together with our children daily, and seek to guide them in ways that would help them be more like Christ.
So, ultimately, all other aspects of our lives become filtered through our world view based on the truth of Christ and what He has done for us!
I coordinate several chemistry labs at Hope College and I used to teach high school chemistry before that. I love interacting with students off all walks of life, getting to know them, and helping guide them in their educational path and maybe in their life beyond that.
Our family is mostly a single income family, and my paycheck is the primary source of our financial security. Therefore, I will continue working after we welcome home a child. My work is very supportive of our pursuing adoption and, whenever we get the call, they will help cover my responsibilities so I can take some paternity leave and focus on family.
But, after that, I will go back to work full time while helping Kristen keep things moving on the home front. I am often the one who wakes up with a baby in the middle of the night, so that would be one of the other ways I help care for the child.
I love to adventure along with our kids while they are learning. It is such a joy to get to be involved in helping them explore their world and enhance their skills.
There are certainly moments of trial along the way, but when they begin to master a math skill, finish reading a hard story, ask deep and intriguing questions about history, or complete a project successfully, it is so rewarding to see their confidence and be able to celebrate with them!
We plan for me to continue to stay home and homeschool our children. I plan to be the primary caregiver for all of our children, including any more childen that we are blessed to add to our family.
My family was a military family and we moved around all over the United States during my childhood and even lived in Germany for 3 years. Since we were so scattered around, we always traveled and took tons of road trips to visit family and tons of other sites along the way.
Kristen and I have taken on that road trip tradition with our family, and we love to travel around with the kids and see and experience all sorts of adventures on the way to visit family and friends in other states (although we haven’t branched out to international travel very much due to cost constraints. We have also continued other family traditions from my childhood family such as ice cream and waffles for Christmas breakfast, camping regularly, and playing games/doing puzzles with the kids.
My family was a fairly traditional family structure. My dad grew up in a mostly middle class German family with three boys, so lots of structure and activity while my mom came from a working class southern family. So, ethnically, my heritage is all Caucasian and my whole family is full of hard working folks in a mix of blue and white collar jobs.
We also always attended church, and I developed a faith in Christ from an early age, but it is more than a simple cultural tradition for me. I truly believe in the truth of the Bible and the saving grace of Jesus Christ!
I grew up in a small town in Texas. My family is mostly descended from German and Swedish immigrants that settled in Minnesota, Michigan, and other Midwestern states. My parents met in college and moved to rural Texas to escape the Minnesota winters and several other family members followed.
I grew up in church and my dad worked as a taxidermist, so we were a little bit country you could say. I still love to include some family foods on special occasions like lefse which is a Swedish crepe kind of thing near Christmas and grilling or sitting around the campfire area always relaxing and fun ways to spend an evening!
We always want to start by saying that we love you and honor your decision to consider an adoption plan for your precious little one! We know this is a hard decision, not made lightly, and is based in love for your sweet baby. If you choose our family to be the one for your little one, know that we will always love them unconditionally, always do what’s best for them, and will always speak honorably about you and your decision to love them through this choice.
Our family is already one that is busy with activity with 3 children currently in our home and they and we are so excited about welcoming another child into our adventurous world. Axel, our oldest, was adopted at birth and he is such a good big brother to his two younger sisters and very excited about sharing his love, attention, and things with another sibling. Deiya and Solei are our biological daughters and they are giddy about having a little baby to dote on and care for. Kristen and I have always had a heart for adoption and know that our family and hearts have room for more children to love, care for, and raise and we are excited to see our family grow through adoption!
If you choose us, we look forward to getting to know you and working with you to find the best way to help you feel loved and honored while we welcome your precious gift into our family!
Love,
Hi, First and foremost, we want to say that we love you and honor your decision to make an adoption plan for your precious little one! We would love for you to be a part of our family and our story as we walk through this adoption journey together.
You will always be an important part of your child’s life and, while adoption will change how this looks and feels and it might feel awkward sometimes, we want to prioritize your child having a relationship with you as their birth mom! We want that for you, and we want that for the baby too as they grow!
Every adoption journey will look different, and we don’t want to dictate what this relationship might look like, but we would love for you to be able to be present at birthdays, meet up at a park, or go camping with us and just be an extended family member at whatever level you are comfortable with.
We already have a great relationship with Axel’s birth mom, and it is beautiful to see all of our kids embrace her as a part of the family when she is around. We know our relationship with you will take time to develop and will likely look at least a little different, but we have seen the beauty of what this relationship can be and would love to walk with you to explore what works best and is the most uplifting and healthy way for you to continue to be a part of this little love’s life and a part of ours as well!
Hi, First and foremost, we want to say that we love you and honor your decision to make an adoption plan for your precious little one! We would love for you to be a part of our family and our story as we walk through this adoption journey together.
You will always be an important part of your child’s life and, while adoption will change how this looks and feels and it might feel awkward sometimes, we want to prioritize your child having a relationship with you as their birth mom! We want that for you, and we want that for the baby too as they grow!
Every adoption journey will look different, and we don’t want to dictate what this relationship might look like, but we would love for you to be able to be present at birthdays, meet up at a park, or go camping with us and just be an extended family member at whatever level you are comfortable with.
We already have a great relationship with Axel’s birth mom, and it is beautiful to see all of our kids embrace her as a part of the family when she is around. We know our relationship with you will take time to develop and will likely look at least a little different, but we have seen the beauty of what this relationship can be and would love to walk with you to explore what works best and is the most uplifting and healthy way for you to continue to be a part of this little love’s life and a part of ours as well!
Just one more thing...Hi, First and foremost, we want to say that we love you and honor your decision to make an adoption plan for your precious little one! We would love for you to be a part of our family and our story as we walk through this adoption journey together.
You will always be an important part of your child’s life and, while adoption will change how this looks and feels and it might feel awkward sometimes, we want to prioritize your child having a relationship with you as their birth mom! We want that for you, and we want that for the baby too as they grow!
Every adoption journey will look different, and we don’t want to dictate what this relationship might look like, but we would love for you to be able to be present at birthdays, meet up at a park, or go camping with us and just be an extended family member at whatever level you are comfortable with.
We already have a great relationship with Axel’s birth mom, and it is beautiful to see all of our kids embrace her as a part of the family when she is around. We know our relationship with you will take time to develop and will likely look at least a little different, but we have seen the beauty of what this relationship can be and would love to walk with you to explore what works best and is the most uplifting and healthy way for you to continue to be a part of this little love’s life and a part of ours as well!
