Ten minutes into our hike we realized this trail was NOT what we had imagined it to be. Casually walking along the winding forest path, we heard a sound swiftly following us. “BEHIND!” was yelled out and we turned, then quickly stepped to the side of the trail as two trail-bikers zoomed past us.
We continued along the way and the next time it was bikers coming at us from the trail ahead. “I don’t think this is meant to be a hiking trail,” Ole said with a little bit of trepidation in his voice. “Let’s continue,” Kim said, “Just be thinking of which way to pitch off to the side as we walk along.” With that suggestion we continued on our way, needing to step off the path frequently for the passing mountain bikers.
2020 had brought with it the chance to explore the outdoors. It really highlighted the dynamic of our marriage and showed the balance we need and have. Kim always wants to try out new and adventurous activities and Ole enjoys this but wishes for a plan and to know as much as possible before starting out. Even when things go unexpectedly we understand that staying connected helps us navigate new ground.
The hike ended without incident, leaving us once again grateful for the sheer beauty of this Michigan home we love so much. Afterwards, we treated ourselves to crepes for dessert and wandered along the river, soaking in the colors of an early fall evening and the joy of simply being together.
We met around Christmas 2013 on a blind date, set up by a mutual friend who knew we both had a similar experience: teaching English in China. This commonality helped us relate naturally with one another. Ole could see that Kimberli was genuine from the start and Kimberli could tell that he was open and knowledgeable. Within the year, we were engaged and married in January 2015.
About one year later, we returned to teach in China together, while Ole studied to earn a master’s degree. We enjoyed having new shared experiences in a place we both love and treasure that time together. We learned a lot about how each of us deals with stress, built new friendships together, and went through a few brief health trials.
We returned home because we wanted to start growing our family and felt it would be beneficial to be near our families in Michigan. The word “journey” truly encapsulates what it has meant to start our family, and we’ve learned how to walk with one another and the Lord through the waiting.
Truthfully, our commitment is to walk through life together with intention – nurturing a marriage built on love, respect, and continual growth – and holding to that commitment in both the joyful and the challenging times of life. We are ready to open our hearts and home to a child, embracing the beautiful gift of adoption as we grow our family with unconditional love.
We like board games, good music, snacking on home-popped popcorn, enjoying the outdoors, and having breakfast together. For family vacations in the Summer, we enjoy swimming, boating, tubing, fishing, campfires, and summer food, like s’mores. We also like to travel and explore new places and make the most of seasonal activities in our city and state.
With Izaura, Kimberli might read books to her or dance around the living room while watching Dancing with the Stars, while Ole often builds Lego sets or Hot Wheels tracks with her.
Kimberli enjoys creating photo albums, reading, cooking and journaling her thoughts. On a free day, you could find her at the library or browsing a thrift store. She loves creative coffee drinks, authentic Chinese food and baked goods. Ole loves, music and concerts, watching and discussing sports with his family, and regularly plays board games with a group of friends.
Gender: Any Gender, including an Ambiguous or Transitioning Gender Child
Ethnicities: Any Race and Ethnicity
Age: Newborn to 4 Years Old
Total of: 1 to 2 Children or 2 Siblings
We Live In: Grand Rapids Area
Our Faith: Christian
Pets: No Pets
Kids Already: One Child Now
Child Care Plan: Family Member Child Care Friend Provided Child Care
We are very blessed to be a part of good community circles. We find it valuable to be in relationship with others. Ole’s family is steadily growing. They have 11 people and often are able to “stay-cation” at his parent’s house for long weekends or holidays. They enjoy the outdoors and keep active within their communities.
Kimberli’s family is large and loving. They have 13 people and her mom frequently organizes ways to gather and do life together. Every month they have a family meal, rotating whose house they go to eat, eat, eat. We are blessed to all live within an easy driving distance of all of our family members.
Our friend circles stem from our church community and from college. We also have friends from our time living in China who live in many other states, and we wish we could connect with them more often. Kimberli has some friends who also have young children, and we sometimes do play dates or gather at parks. Ole hangs out with a group of guys to play board games pretty regularly, and Kimberli gets together with a couple close friends for tea every month.
Our neighborhood is full of families, and our home is near a school, with many parks, beaches and activities within an easy driving distance. The parks we frequent include Lamar (pond & walking trail), Pinery (sledding hill, baseball diamonds), & Buck Creek (nature trail, tennis and basketball courts). We also enjoy community events and activities in nearby Grandville.
Our house has two stories and three bedrooms. We have a modest backyard with garden spaces along the edges. Our favorite room is the family room with a big lounging couch and large built-in bookshelves. Upstairs we have a lot of space for indoor play. Here, we make so many memories.
Since we both work in education, this topic is near and dear to our hearts. Education influences the opportunities that someone has later in life, by building in routines, discovering learning styles and being part of a community. We intend to keep our kids in public schools but desire to be involved in their school community, and knowledgeable of the ways that they are learning.
We want to be active in communication with teachers about how our children best learn. We also want to encourage, creativity and the natural skills of the child by encouraging their special interests, whether it is the arts, sports or other extracurricular activities. Reading is important to us and we want to be a family that reads together. We also value physical activity and wish to explore outdoors and keep our bodies healthy.
For us, discipline works best when it’s steady, developmentally appropriate, and rooted in relationship. We try to lean into communication, offering choices, and following through gently but clearly. We also set boundaries in ways that listen, teach, and guide rather than overwhelm.
When things start to feel a little off, we just adjust as we go—talking more, tuning in to feelings, and staying close so we can help guide things back to center. We both see discipline as something that protects safety, supports healthy growth, and builds mutual respect. Our goal is to correct behavior without shaming—focusing instead on repair, understanding, and restoration.
We are Christians and our faith is an integral part of our family life. We both grew up with a strong legacy of faith, and we personally have been called to follow the Lord in our lives. We believe that God is the Good Shepherd and we aspire to walk as he would walk.
The church we attend encourages us to live out our faith wherever we are placed: in our job, community, and with the strangers we encounter day to day. Our church is large, but we also gather with a small group about twice a month with the intentions of living church in community, worship and pursuit of our neighbor.
While we hold strongly to our faith, we understand that not everyone has positive experiences with Christians in their lives. We believe Jesus loves and gives grace to all people. We also pray anyone in community with us will experience peace and healing.
I enjoy working on computers and helping others find different ways to solve problems with them. It’s very rewarding to help someone find a solution and hear their relief or satisfaction when I’ve served them well.
I plan to continue working to support our family as the member with the largest earning income. I will take two weeks off through the Paternity Leave time available to me when the child is first placed in our home. My wife will be the primary caretaker during the days, but if or when she is working in the evening, I will be home to care for the child.
I love, love, love my job. I feel so fulfilled in helping immigrants and refugees find and use skills to help them succeed in the U.S. This includes the English language, literacy concepts, and even language connected with health care. It is so rewarding to witness the community that is built in each of my classrooms. Doing life together with my learners honors their cultures and perspectives, and I learn so much in return.
I currently have part-time work and plan to continue working part-time. Because my work is flexible, I would be able to build a suitable schedule in order to be the main daily caretaker for the child. This might mean working evenings with online classes when Ole is home, or arranging for family to watch the child for the few hours that I work a few mornings each week.
I grew up in Portage, next to Kalamazoo, Michigan. Both of my parents were raised in communities in Southern Michigan, my dad on a farm, my mom in the suburbs. The value of hard work was passed from their families to ours. Both families have a European heritage, mostly Norwegian from my father’s side, mostly German from my mother’s.
Through my parents’ support and encouragement, my brother, sister, and I were able to be involved in sports, music and church activities, primarily through Youth Group. Several Summer vacations were spent on family trips to different parts of the United States and we usually went to a pro baseball game once or twice each Summer. I also remember when I was in high school, we went to the movies together almost once a week.
Family time is just as important today, even though my extended family doesn’t all live in the same area. We make sure to get together for a week-long vacation each Summer and get together often to celebrate and enjoy holidays, birthdays, and some activities, such as fishing or board games.
I grew up in the suburbs of Grand Rapids, Michigan, spending a lot of time outdoors in summer and lots of cozy hours reading in winter. I went to college in Northwest Iowa. After graduation I spent many years living abroad in China before moving back to Michigan to be near family.
My ethnicity is Dutch American. Although my maternal grandfather liked to speak some Dutch and we occasionally ate Dutch soup or some Dutch treats our traditions were more American throughout my childhood. Our Dutch heritage was very much connected to our Christian faith, and I grew up attending church and many of the youth programs throughout each week.
This taught me the importance of community and connection to others. Growing up we took family car trips around the U.S., went camping in summer, and my mom was always good about trying to find new experiences for us to enjoy.
Today, our small family enjoys game nights, and movies, taking part in local festivals and activities, and spending time with extended family regularly each month.
Thank you for looking at all your options with such care. It speaks volumes about the love you have for your child. We hope that by sharing our story, we can bring you comfort and confidence as you make this important choice. No matter which direction you take, we’re sending you and your little one all our love and the brightest hopes for your journey ahead.
The opportunity to adopt fills our hearts with gratitude and excitement, and we have so much love to share as we grow our family. Please know that we will cherish and unconditionally love your child every single day. We want to honor their story and make sure they feel proud of who they are and where they come from. We understand that open adoption creates a beautiful community of people that love and want the very best for this child. With blessings, Ole and Kimberli
Our family has already grown in a non-traditional way. We welcomed our daughter, Izaura into our home when she was 2 years old, although we had been building a relationship with her and her birth family for more than a year before that. Izzy came to us through extended family connections. Our family ties and connections have expanded because of her.
We initiate meeting half-siblings, uncles, cousins and friends of her birth family and regularly connect with her natural grandparents. It is important to us that she stays connected to her roots. We are glad for this practice and hope it will serve our relationship well.
We believe that you are an important piece of the puzzle that makes up their identity. We want to honor the child’s background and give them positive feedback on who they are and where they come from.
We hope to be in good communication with each other and are willing to learn about any extended family the child may have. This could include regular texts with pictures, video chats, in-person visits, and inviting you to join in family traditions, whatever is comfortable to you
Discussing baby names – We have our own ideas for names and are also willing to discuss them with the parents. The parents desiring a particular name is something we hope to communicate about.
Our family has already grown in a non-traditional way. We welcomed our daughter, Izaura into our home when she was 2 years old, although we had been building a relationship with her and her birth family for more than a year before that. Izzy came to us through extended family connections. Our family ties and connections have expanded because of her.
We initiate meeting half-siblings, uncles, cousins and friends of her birth family and regularly connect with her natural grandparents. It is important to us that she stays connected to her roots. We are glad for this practice and hope it will serve our relationship well.
We believe that you are an important piece of the puzzle that makes up their identity. We want to honor the child’s background and give them positive feedback on who they are and where they come from.
We hope to be in good communication with each other and are willing to learn about any extended family the child may have. This could include regular texts with pictures, video chats, in-person visits, and inviting you to join in family traditions, whatever is comfortable to you
Just one more thing...Our family has already grown in a non-traditional way. We welcomed our daughter, Izaura into our home when she was 2 years old, although we had been building a relationship with her and her birth family for more than a year before that. Izzy came to us through extended family connections. Our family ties and connections have expanded because of her.
We initiate meeting half-siblings, uncles, cousins and friends of her birth family and regularly connect with her natural grandparents. It is important to us that she stays connected to her roots. We are glad for this practice and hope it will serve our relationship well.
We believe that you are an important piece of the puzzle that makes up their identity. We want to honor the child’s background and give them positive feedback on who they are and where they come from.
We hope to be in good communication with each other and are willing to learn about any extended family the child may have. This could include regular texts with pictures, video chats, in-person visits, and inviting you to join in family traditions, whatever is comfortable to you
