Last Father’s Day, our whole family (both sides!) gathered on our big front porch for ice-cream and cards. Isla, our then 1.5-year-old, loves ice-cream. She toddled from person to person, mouth hanging open like a baby bird, expecting spoonfuls of chocolate ice-cream. Around and around she went, snagging bites of her favorite treat!
Tim and I treasure that afternoon – Our whole family gathered together on our big porch – laughing with our sweet girl.
Tim and I just celebrated our eighth wedding anniversary!
We are a true Millennial love story!
We met online while I (Sarah) was serving my first church out of seminary in Illinois. The weekend I drove up to Michigan to interview at my current church, we squeezed in our first in-person date (it was a rather momentous weekend).
Because I was traveling through, I had my dog with me. Brewster was more than a little curious about Tim! Brewster insisted on being on top of the table at the coffee house where we meet up! Right in between us, belly up for pets right next to our cups of coffee!
We married a year later, on the most perfect and rainy day in June of 2018. Since then, we have been working on our home, building our family, playing endless board games, and building relationships with our neighbors and community.
In 2023, we became parents to our fantastic little girl Isla. Now, Tim and I get to experience each other as parents and fall in love all over again.
We have a pool in our neighborhood! So, most often if we have time for a relaxing afternoon, you will find the whole family bobbing around in the shallow end.
For Tim, baseball is life! He is currently organizing a baseball social club for our community. Which is mostly just guys meeting up for batting practice at a nearby park on Sunday afternoons.
For Sarah, music is life! She sings year-round in the local community chorus. She especially enjoys preparing for the holiday program in the fall. The Terlouw household just recently got a hand-me-down piano. Sarah is looking forward to learning to play alongside Isla.
For Isla, play is life! She enjoys coloring, Kinetic sand, swinging at the park, playing dress up and… pretty much everything else.
Gender: Any Gender, including an Ambiguous or Transitioning Gender Child
Ethnicities: Any Race and Ethnicity
Age: Newborn to 3 Years Old
Total of: 1 Child or 2 Siblings
We Live In: Holland
Our Faith: Christian
Pets: No Pets
Kids Already: One Child Now
Child Care Plan: Family Member Child Care Licensed Child Care Center
Tim and I both come from close-knit families. Our parents have all been married for well over 40 years!
My parents live about an hour away in the Lansing area. They are both recently retired and eager for adventure. Tim and I see them about once a month. They often drive our way to attend worship at our church and spend the day with us. Or we head their way for a little bit of time in the country.
My sister and her family live near Nashville, TN. We spend time with them every Christmas and for a couple of weeks over the Fourth of July. When they are here we spend lots of time at the beach. It is such a joy spending time with my niece and nephew!
Tim’s parents live close by in Holland, we see them at least a couple times a month for meals or fun. Tim’s dad Larry enjoys coming by to take Brewster for long walks. They are best buds! So it is not unusual for us to see Tim’s parent multiple times a week. Tim’s sister lives in Denver, CO but there is some chatter about her moving closer to Michigan! Fingers crossed!
We also have some great friends. Most of whom have lots of kids! Our nursery is already filling up with hand-me-down items from our friends who are beyond excited about us adopting a child. We get together for pot-luck dinners, apple picking, game nights and will attend local festivals together as a group. Since most of our friends have children, our gathering are always pretty family friendly.
Our neighborhood is a “front porch community.” The neighborhood was mostly built about 25 years ago. Every property has a tiny backyard, but all the houses have big front porches that face a common “green.” At the center of the neighborhood is a shared pool, playground, gazebo, basketball court, and yard for play. Our neighborhood is full of families with children of all ages.
This past spring, Tim and I, planned and set-up the neighborhood Easter Egg hunt. It was a rainy day, but we still had about 30 kids come out to collect eggs! We filled and hid 500 eggs, and I think they we all collected in about five minutes.
Our home has a large open floor plan, with a great line of sight from the kitchen to the play area in the living room. We have 3 bedrooms, with room to finish off a fourth room. Currently our guest room is “Grandma’s room.” Sarah’s mom comes every week and stays a couple of days at a time.
Both of our mothers are teachers. Tim’s mom is a retired special education teacher, and my mother retired from a career in elementary education. Our mothers instilled in both of us a deep respect for life-long education, both in the classroom and at home.
We quite the built in pre-school team!
We have found with Isla that the grocery store made for the best baby pre-school. We would go on grocery store “hunts” for: things that are red, pictures of dogs, bump vegetables…
Early education is important in expanding our minds, developing our self-esteem and confidence, and encouraging our self-awareness.
When the time comes for our children to attend school, we have several fantastic options within walking distance of our home. Depending on the child’s unique needs we have options like a language immersion school, a school with a fantastic special education program, a forest preschool program, a school that emphasizes art education, and another that allows for semester of international travel once a student reaches high school.
The Holland area schools are becoming more and more racially diverse each and every year. There are so many wonderful options to help any child thrive and become their unique selves.
We are already putting away funds for our children’s continuing education. Tim and I hope to walk beside our children’s education as far as they want to go!
Discipline provides structure and boundaries for children so that they can thrive in this world.
Tim and I do not believe in spanking, hitting or corporeal punishment in any form. Discipline is not about fear, but about safety and respect.
For young children we prefer redirection and calming techniques to help us all get back on track together. We also believe that disciple and consequences should be tailored to the child’s ages and situation.
Tim and I are grateful to Greater Hopes for providing classes on navigating discipline, we continue to add new tools to our tool belt for when we need them.
We are both individuals of deep Christian faith.
Being a part of a church community is very important to both of us as well. A church community to us is about being surrounded by God’s love, beautiful timeless and holy traditions, receiving the support and wisdom of elders, encountering God’s grace through fellowship, opportunities for stretching our giftedness, and justice work.
For children, we especially believe that church is about building a friendship with Jesus and developing a sense that they always have a loving home that will support them and protect them no matter what.
I really like the creativity of my job (even when the food isn’t creative per se) and making something with my hands. I like knowing that sometimes I make people happy and can affect their day in a positive way. And I enjoy having good conversations with my coworkers and friends.
Through my employer, I am granted 4 weeks of paternity leave. After which I’ll return to work to help provide for our family. We are blessed with family close by, and so we plan on utilizing a licensed child care center close to my work and family support.
I pastor a family-sized church in a small lakeside town. It is bliss!
I get to teach, love, care for, engage, invite, nurture, dream, serve beside and grow spiritually with people of all generations and backgrounds.
I especially enjoy opportunities to incorporate art into the worship space. Paintings, theater, poetry, tapestries… sharing the love of Christ through colors and textures and word art fuels me.
The Board of Ministry at my church has already approved me for a 12-week maternity leave following placement. After which I’ll go back to work ministering to the congregation I love.
For childcare, we have options! Tim and I have family that live close by who are eager to help, and Tim’s work has a day care available right next door. It is likely that we will utilize a combo of family help and a licensed childcare facility.
It’s a little complicated… I was adopted by my parents at four months old. My birth family is from St. Louis, but I’ve never met them and really don’t know anything about them. I’m of mixed race, part Black and part White. I’m still learning about and exploring my ethnic heritage.
My adopted parents are White Dutch people, and my sister is of mixed race like myself.
Back in the 1980s when I was adopted, American culture told us all to be “color blind.” But today, some 30 and 40 years later, my family is pushing back on that. Today I can happily say that we are all on a journey to learn how to celebrate our ethnic differences.
Adoption is widely celebrated in my family. I have cousins from Korea, Columbia, and the Philippines. When we are together at Christmas, we like to joke that we are the “United Nations.”
My Grandparents on my mother’s side, before they passed, told the family that they hoped (more than anything) that the cousins would continue to spend intentional time together.
So for the past six years, our extended family has met up for a family holiday somewhere new across the country. It makes me smile knowing that we will have decades of adventures ahead with all of our growing families.
My Great Grandma Maxine always said that our family is a “Dutch mix.” A little bit of Dutch, a little bit English, and a whole lot of who knows. This is the case for both sides of my family. So it is particularly fitting that Tim and I settled in Holland, where they celebrate Michigan’s Dutch heritage.
I was born and raised in mid-Michigan, as were my parents, and their parents before them. Growing up I was blessed to have grandparents and great grandparents galore on both sides of the family! Generations of family close at hand!
My father’s side of the family was particularly close while I was growing up. I have beautiful memories of softball games played in the yard in front of the big red barn at my grandparent’s country home. One year, my Uncle Tom hit a line drive straight at me while I was on second base, the ball smacked me right in the check! Ouch! But for the rest of the day, I was showered with popsicles from my cousins and Auntie check kisses :)
My Great Grandma Maxine (who I mentioned earlier), she was the spiritual stronghold of my mother’s side of the family. We had an Easter tradition growing up of making candy birds nests with her every year. Together we would build sugary pastel nests while recalling the story of Christ’s passion and resurrection. I still make them every year in her memory.
Ever since we began this journey, we’ve kept a journal to document each step of the way. We’ve done so in case the day comes when the child wants to know the who, what, when, where, and whys of it all. Throughout the pages are little notes squeezed in for you! There are sighs of gratitude, prayers for your health, shouts of thankful wonder at your bravery.
We’d like to share an entry with you:
“What an odd and hopeful feeling knowing that somewhere the love of Tim and I’s lives grows in the belly of a blessed woman we have yet to meet. While we cannot promise that brave woman that her child will live a life free of challenges, there are promises that we wish we could share with her now:
We can promise her that we will show up for all the elementary bake sales with cupcakes in hand.
We can promise her that we will be in the bleachers cheering during basketball games or dance recitals.
We can promise her that we will be diligent about “tummy time” and sunscreen.
That we will read all the Harry Potter books together.
That we will build all the pillow forts.
That when this baby is 12 and wants to dye their hair green, we will humor that request.
We can promise her that this child will be introduced to Jesus through songs, stories, and the church who is already standing by to welcome them in.
We cannot promise her that we will be perfect parents. But we can promise her that we will learn, that we will protect this child with the might of mama bears, and we will introduce them to a world of possibilities, beauty, and infinite unconditional love.”
May God bless you!
Tim and I would love to build a relationship with you so that you can continue to have a special role in this baby’s life. We hope that our future holds picnics during the summer, photo exchanges and video messages, being together at birthdays and celebrating milestones side by side. Our relationship might have it’s sticky moments, but we can all work together to make sure that we give this baby what it needs to feel whole and connected.
Tim and I would love to build a relationship with you so that you can continue to have a special role in this baby’s life. We hope that our future holds picnics during the summer, photo exchanges and video messages, being together at birthdays and celebrating milestones side by side. Our relationship might have it’s sticky moments, but we can all work together to make sure that we give this baby what it needs to feel whole and connected.
Just one more thing...Tim and I would love to build a relationship with you so that you can continue to have a special role in this baby’s life. We hope that our future holds picnics during the summer, photo exchanges and video messages, being together at birthdays and celebrating milestones side by side. Our relationship might have it’s sticky moments, but we can all work together to make sure that we give this baby what it needs to feel whole and connected.
