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The Kruyswijk Family Adoption

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In December of 2002, after a little more than a year of marriage, Steve and I went on a Winter vacation in Oregon. We had no children at the time and were struggling with the fact that we tried for 6 months to get pregnant. As we walked on the beach, we discussed adoption as a way to grow our family. We were both open and excited about this! By the end of that same month, we were pregnant with our first daughter, Sierra. By 2013, we had 4 healthy biological children.

In 2013 we were expecting our 4th child. Sometime after she was born we seriously looked into adoption through the foster care system. Soon into the process it became clear that it wasn’t a good time for our family to be adopting. We also didn’t see foster care as the best fit for our family.

Yet adoption continued to be a desire of both of us. In fact, all our kids have been very open to it as it has been a topic of conversation from time to time.

We are inspired and encouraged by multiple families that have adopted children internationally.
For me (Janine) I feel I have this as a common connection since I immigrated to the United States when I was 17. I have a real interest and love for different countries and cultures. That’s what makes us all so unique and yet we are all so similar. In light of this, we began to think that if we ever did adopt, it would be international.

In January 2017 Steve and I felt strongly that now is a good time to adopt and so grow our family. I mentioned it to Steve after having these thoughts privately, and he replied that exactly 2 days earlier he had committed to adding adoption as a prayer item to his personal prayer list. We feel excited (and a bit overwhelmed) to be able to adopt a child into our family and to love, nourish and care for this child just like we do with our 4 children. Our hearts are full as we think of the opportunities and blessings we can share with another child in our growing family.


Our son Carson, 12 years old, has wanted a little brother for quite a while. He is blessed with 3 sisters, 1 older and 2 younger. He kept asking for a brother ever since we found out in 2013 that our 4th child would be a little girl. Steve and I encouraged him to go ahead and pray about that, and he did. He started to pray for us to adopt a little boy. It looks like Carson’s prayers will be answered soon!

There has not been any adoptions on either side of our families. We are grateful to our extended families for the support they have expressed and the excitement they have for adoption.
We are also surrounded by families in our community that have adopted. There are many adoptees at our kids’ school, at our church and in the general Lynden community. It’s been a great joy to be able to connect with a number of them and ask them about their experiences and their stories and to see their families thrive together.

We are asking for you to consider joining us in our joy of adoption. Please pray for the process that we have started. And if it works for you, please help us to bring our little boy home by contributing to our adoption fund. Any amount would help and be a blessing to our family.

Thank you for taking the time to read our story. Your prayers and contributions are very appreciated.

Steve and Janine Kruyswijk
Sierra (14)
Carson (12)
Sydney (8)
Eden (4)
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Donations 

  • Monika Mahal
    • $100 
    • 6 yrs
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Organizer

Janine Kruyswijk
Organizer
Lynden, WA

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