"Whatever you're going through… if you can't see the light at the end of the tunnel, or even know where to look for it… I invite you to not underestimate the power of a little change of environment," he wrote.
James Van Der Beek and his family experienced deep grief when he and his wife Kimberly endured two pregnancy losses. Coping with something like that is not easy, but the Dawson's Creek alum, 45, recently opened up about how they healed after experiencing the loss, according to PEOPLE.
On August 19, 2022, the actor took to Instagram to share photos from two separate family trips. The first photo was taken a while after his wife Kimberly's first miscarriage in November 2019. The second picture was taken 2.5 years since then, Van Der Beek mentioned.
"Pic #1 we had just lost a baby 18 weeks into pregnancy and almost lost @vanderkimberly in the process," the actor wrote. "I had a collaboration going south, rapidly. And I'd just been booted off a reality dancing competition I'd been favored to win. (I feel like three out of those four are fairly relatable 😂)."
After the first loss, the family decided to go on a trip. "So, last minute, we rented an #RV, and headed north," Van Der Beek said, noting that they had no "real plan, just day-to-day."
"Late one night we pulled into a quaint little RV park I’d booked a few hours earlier, and woke up next to this river," he said. "And thus began the process - not necessarily of healing - but of being present. Present to the pain. Present to the beauty around us. And present to the acceptance of being in a process I did not understand," he wrote.
The couple, who experienced their second pregnancy loss in June 2020 at 17½ weeks, later welcomed their sixth child together, son Jeremiah, in October 2021. They are also parents to Olivia, 11, Joshua, 10, Annabel, 8, Emilia, 6, and Gwendolyn, 4.
Recently, the family went back to the same river, Van Der Beek revealed in his post. "2 ½ years later, after another late-term pregnancy loss, after that project blew up completely, after we moved to a new state and got our own RV… we came back to that same spot. With a brand new baby boy 🌈🌈," the star wrote, taking about the pictures of Kimberly holding Jeremiah in the post.
Addressing their first time at the river, Van Der Beek said he was "astounded by how much I didn't know about the path to where I am now… and by how much peace I was able to feel in the midst of that darkness."
He continued with an encouraging note for his followers, writing, "Whatever you're going through… if you can't see the light at the end of the tunnel, or even know where to look for it… I invite you to not underestimate the power of a little change of environment… and of taking the time to sit exactly where you're at."
"Healing comes at its own pace. Presence might just be a pre-requisite," he concluded his moving post.
References:
https://www.instagram.com/p/ChbpyLguiM1/
Cover Image Source: Getty Images | Photo by Rachel Murray
