Trains into and out of Belgium.

There is a train station at the Schipol Amsterdam airport. The train to Ghent is either via Antwerp or Brussels depending on the time you pick. https://www.belgiantrain.be/en

The train from Brussels to Paris leaves from Gare du Midi and ends at Gare Du Nord. You have two options Thalys https://www.thalys.com/fr/en or their low cost train brand Izy https://www.izy.com/en. Once arrving at Paris Gare du Nord take a taxi there is a official stand in front of the train station.

So I am assuming you will be staying near Schipol airport Friday night. Yes, there is a train station at the airport that you can get trains to Ghent, more likely with a change at Antwerp, which is shorter than going to Brussels.
You can look up schedules (but not buy tickets) at www.bahn.com. Put in the date and start point as Amsterdam Airport, and the destination as Ghent. You'll see all the trains and connections to get there any time of day.

Yes, you get the Thalys train to Paris at Brussels Midi. At Gare du Nord, take a taxi from the official taxi rank at the station. You might need a taxi van with 4 plus baby. Any one else who offers you a ride will indeed "take you for a ride".

Thank you for your replies.....is there also a train station in central Amsterdam that goes directly to Brussels or Antwerp ?

is there also a train station in central Amsterdam that goes directly to Brussels or Antwerp ?

Yes, Schiphol airport is astride the main line south from Amsterdam.
Trains go: Amsterdam Centraal - Schiphol - Rotterdam - Antwerp - Brussels Midi - Paris Gare du Nord.
To get to Gent, you change at Antwerp.

Place name spelling is particularly complicated in Belgium. Places have different names in Flemish and French and sometimes different again in English. The place name used when you get there is the local name. When coming from somewhere else, the name used is the name in the language of that place, which may be different.
For example (Flemish = French = English), local version in bold.
Gent = Gand = Ghent
Brugge = Bruges
Ieper = Ypres
Antwerpen = Anvers = Antwerp
Brussel-Zuid = Bruxelles-Midi = Brussels-South (Brussel = Bruxelles = Brussels is bilingual)
Luik = Liège (Lüttich in German)
and so on.

Thank you again!

I believe that Belgium has 3 official languages

The third one is German, but you'll only see German signage in a tiny southeastern area of the country little visited by tourists.