Author Archives: laurinvanbeukering

It has been one ear since I last posted. And what a year it has been. We were blessed to welcome our sweet Parker Thomas in February. He is a healthy and happy boy and we are overjoyed every day for the gift God has given us. Due to travel restrictions while pregnant our adoptionContinue reading “Its been a year”

Hi all, its time for an update on the VanBeukering family. On the adoption front there has been no movement. We speak with our coordinator about every 8-12 weeks but we just continue with the waiting game. Due to COVID the number of available adoptions has been low but the number of adoptive families hasContinue reading “October Update”

We are way overdue for an update but life has been a bit chaotic and surreal the last couple months. The delay in post is purposeful, you see, I found out that I was pregnant when I went in for hand surgery back in June. As you may be able to imagine, I didn’t reallyContinue reading “Oh What A Life”

They say no news is good news, but when it comes to adoption, no news is difficult news. It means that there is no match. This doesn’t mean that there is nobody looking, or that no interest has peaked as selecting our family for a match. It simply means no match has yet been made.Continue reading “Four Months”

Who knew when adopting a baby that you literally have to work with a marketing specialist to promote yourself. Though we realized we would need to create a profile we felt like we are pretty likable folks and many birth mothers would be attracted to what we offer. But this was a whole experience moreContinue reading “Marketing”

Nobody likes an unexpected trip to the hospital. Last week, I approached a new horse in her stall to remove her blanket, she spun on me faster than I could move. Unfortunately, she kicked me. When you grow up around horses and animals a majority of your life you learn how to approach them. IContinue reading “Double Update”

Last night we had our first huge step in our adoption. Its amazing that exactly one year into our journey we scheduled our home study and last night we completed it. Everyone kept asking us if we were nervous and wishing us luck. We definitely appreciated all of the thoughts during the process, but honestly,Continue reading “Step One – Check”

Typically when writing about something like adoption people may think that a positive test means we are having a baby. But in 2020, a positive test has taken on a whole new meaning. Unfortunately, Monday Jason started to feel not so great and was advised to get a COVID test. A test that would soonContinue reading “A Positive Test”

As you may know, I am a bit of a neat freak. I am extremely organized, everything has a place and I prefer it also have a schedule. With the adoption requiring such a large financial commitment we have been saving where we can, selling items we no longer use or wear, creating an EtsyContinue reading “All Booked Up”

This is a hard one for me to write. I am not good at asking for help, especially financially. We have worked very hard to be independent and self sufficient, but we need help. We will not be able to have our dream come true without the help and support of our friends, family andContinue reading “Funding in Full Effect”

The virus has set up several road blocks on our journey. Though these are always difficult to overcome it has allowed us additional time and perspective. As the virus has continued to change our lives it was difficult to move forward with our process. Especially during this time we started to feel that maybe theContinue reading “Sometimes there isn’t anything much to say”

It has been hard the last few months to write, there has been little to no movement in our adoption process and the world around us is a very scary place. This doesn’t change anything about our ultimate goal to adopt a child in the very near future, its just been a slow moving process.Continue reading “Color”

I wanted to share some information about the infant adoption process. Many people have asked about this process, because I am not sure how other agencies work and other states work please note that this is the process our agency uses. For our first adoption we really are looking for an infant to join ourContinue reading “Infant Adoption”

The decision to not medically pursue pregnancy was very personal to us. We know a great number of people that have had these treatments done. Some of them were entirely successful and some not. Jason was very supportive of following my lead with this choice. We had heard the success stories, the failed attempts heartbreakContinue reading “Why not IUI or IVF”

Jason and I had put parameters on our journey. We had put timelines in place and discussed how far we were willing to medically go before seriously committing to adoption. This never had anything to do with the fact that we looked down on adoption. If you know us you may know that adoption actuallyContinue reading “The last straw”

Once Jason and I felt that we were being called to adopt, for us it was an easy decision. Because really, we didn’t feel like there was a decision at all. If any of you know me personally you know that I am a researcher, I never stop moving and never stop thinking. So fromContinue reading “We are going to adopt…”

Though this is about our adoption process, I think its helpful to many women who are going through the pregnancy struggle to hear about other things people have tried. For us, none of them were successful but this doesn’t mean they aren’t worth trying for you. At our first appointment our doctor drew us manyContinue reading “Methods We Tried”

Many of you may have started on our about us page, if you did you have a good short story backdrop as to how we are where we are. Yes, we are somewhat here because we didn’t get pregnant. But, well before we were even married adoption was part of the conversation. We both haveContinue reading “Welcome to our Journey”