Born on January 7, 1976 in Sarnia, Ontario, Canada. Both of my parents were born in the Netherlands, and I claim at least two characteristics to this heritage. Blond hair, and a connection to the Christian Reformed Church. To get a picture of me growing up click here.

While born a Canadian I moved to Michigan for junior high school. So from an early age I learned the ups and downs of border hopping. After returning to Canada for high school in Chatham, Ontario I enrolled at Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

At Calvin I majored in International Relations and French. At Calvin I had a lot of great experiences. I took an Interim at the UN in New York City and studied for a semester in France.

During my spring break in France Sarah, a friend, and I traveled through 9 countries in 3 weeks. We saw new interesting things, and had quite a few stories to share upon coming home. The biggest lesson I learned at Calvin is that there are lots of different kinds of people in this world and it is important to relate amongst all of us.

I was born on August 11, 1976 in Albany, New York. After two years, my family (of four at that time) moved to Florida. We stayed in Bradenton for 10 years, during which time with the birth of my dear sister Rebecca, our family increased to five. We then moved for a second and final time as a family, to Pella, Iowa. To get a picture of me growing up click here

I went to Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Michigan for or my undergrad education , majoring in English and minoring in Music. It was at Calvin, I think, that I started to find my voice in music and writing. Words and phrases--whether in music or writing--these are my passion!

As you may have noticed our lives began to come together while we were at Calvin. At that time both of us played the violin in Calvin's orchestra, and so we met often. One of our fondest memories of Calvin is heading off to the cafeteria with orchestra friends after rehearsal. Both of us studied in Europe our third year and after returning that summer we decided to get married the following summer. But what were we going to do together?? We decided to try something in a foreign country. Teaching English sounded interesting so we began to research it. We decided on Japan, applied for and landed employment, and a month after we were married, we loaded two suitcases each on a plane for Japan.

For four years we taught English in Japan. Our first three years were as part of the JET Program (an teaching program administered by the Japanese Ministry of Education). Our final year we taught at a small private English conversation school. During our time here we were lucky to see a lot of Japan and also visited Thailand, the Philippines, and China. Four years later we emerged from our Japan experience with a lot of wonderful memories, friendships and things learned.

After four years of pretty much the same routine our next year was a year of change. From August 2002-2003 we had no steady employment. From August through Christmas we traveled by bicycle through South East Asia. After that we returned to the States and spent some time with family. We spent January through April with Dan's parents in Los Angeles and then from April through July with Sarah's parents in the Chicago area. In July 2003 Sarah was hired by CRWRC for a full time intern postion in Muskegon, Michigan. So we are planning to spend the next two years in Muskegon learning more about Community Development.

In the future we hope to travel more, serve people in our work, and love each other, our families, and friends.